Congress system is that CM is decided by elected MLAs: Mallikarjun Kharge

New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday made it clear that the party will name its chief ministerial pick in Haryana after the polls, asserting that the party’s system has always been that the elected MLAs decide who will be the CM.

Ahead of the Haryana Assembly polls, the Congress on Wednesday announced seven guarantees, including the promises of a legal guarantee for MSP and a caste survey, if voted to power.

The guarantees were launched at a press conference at the AICC headquarters in the presence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan, former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and AICC senior observers for the Haryana polls Ashok Gehlot, Ajay Maken and Partap Singh Bajwa.

Asked whether the Congress will go into the polls with a CM face and will it be Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kharge said, “In Congress party, after elections, the MLAs who are elected always decide who is to be made the Chief Minister. So this issue does not come up right now and we do the same everywhere.”

“We have not started any new system, the one who works gets it eventually, but the MLAs who win the elections decide it. So this is our system from before,” he said with Hooda sitting beside him.

Leaders like Bhupinder Hooda, his son Deepender, party MPs Kumari Selja and Randeep Surjewala, are seen as probable CM contenders in case the Congress gets a majority.

Voting for the 90-member assembly will take place on October 5 while the counting of votes will be done on October 8.