The Haryana Congress Legislature Party (CLP), which held its first meeting here in Chandigarh on Friday passed a resolution authorising the party high command to appoint its next leader in the House.

Top Congress leaders—former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, AICC treasurer Ajay Maken, Punjab CLP leader Partap Singh Bajwa, and Senior Congress leader TS Singh Deo were present in the meeting as central observers. They also spoke with all party MLAs and sought their opinion on who should be their new leader.

Outgoing CLP leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda and state Congress chief Udai Bhan were also present at the meeting along with other Haryana Congress MLAs. The meeting lasted nearly 90 minutes.

In polls conducted on October 5, the BJP secured a third term in the state, winning 48 seats in the 90-member assembly. The Congress won 37 seats.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Ajay Makan said, “A meeting of the Congress Legislature Party was held here. At the beginning of the meeting, Bhupinder Singh Hooda read out a resolution that CLP unanimously decides that the right to choose its leader is of the AICC president. Hooda’s resolution was seconded by Haryana Congress president Udai Bhan. All the MLAs present unanimously backed the resolution.”

After the resolution was passed, the observers met with the MLAs separately and sought their opinions, he said, adding “we will give the feedback to the high command” today itself.

In a show of strength on Wednesday, 31 party MLAs met Hooda and extended their support to him. However, a section of leaders is seeking to oust him as the leader of the party in the assembly and wants the younger generation to take over as the Congress failed to come back to power in the state.

But, Hooda did not seem to be in the mood to give up. The Congress MLAs from Haryana had recently felicitated Hooda at his Delhi residence and expressed their desire that he be their leader in the state assembly. It was the first time the Congress MLAs had met after the Haryana Assembly poll results were announced even though the meeting was informal.