Congress' central leaders to decide leader of legislative party in Madhya Pradesh: Digvijaya

Bhopal: Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and Congress Rajya Sabha MP, Digvijaya Singh, on Thursday said the party's central leaders will decide the leader of the legislative party in the state.
Singh made the remark while speaking to reporters after attending a meeting at the party office in Bhopal on Thursday.
"All our MLAs have left it to our central leaders to decide the leader of the legislative party. Congress (central) leaders Randeep Surjewala and Jitendra Singh will sit down individually with all our MLAs (before deciding on the leader of the legislative party)," Singh told reporters here.
The Congress legislature party meeting was held under the supervision of the AICC (All India Congress Committee) special observers Jitendra Singh and Randeep Surjewala.
Ahead of the meeting, Surjewala said, "AICC special observer Jitendra Singh and I have come here for the legislature party meeting. We will hold discussions with all our colleagues (Congress MLAs)."
Meanwhile, another senior Congress leader, Ajay Singh, said the decision that the high command will pick the leader of the legislative party in the state was arrived at unanimously at the meeting.
Significantly, the Congress's state chief, former CM Kamal Nath, was not present in the meeting.
On Nath's conspicuous absence from the meeting, Congress MLA Omkar Singh Markam said, "Nath had a pre-scheduled meeting because of which he couldn't attend today's meeting."
He said the discussions in the meeting centred largely on the Lok Sabha elections next year.
Earlier, on Wednesday, Mohan Yadav took oath as the new chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and assumed charge later in the day.
Governor Mangubhai C. Patel administered the oath of office to CM Yadav at Motilal Nehru Stadium, Lal Parade Ground in the state capital, Bhopal.
BJP leaders Jagdish Devda and Rajendra Shukla also took oath as the deputy chief ministers at the swearing-in ceremony.
Madhya Pradesh polled for 230 assembly seats in a single phase on November 17 and the votes were counted on December 3.
Despite battling close to 18 years of incumbency, the BJP won a resounding mandate, bagging 163 seats.
Despite being shown as wresting the state in several exit-poll projections, the Congress finished a distant second at 66 seats.