SHIMLA: The suspense over the new Himachal Pradesh chief minister continued today as the two-member team of central observers returned to New Delhi after consultations with senior state leaders but without holding a formal meeting of the newly elected MLAs.
Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Singh Tomar, and Himachal Pradesh BJP affairs in charge Mangal Pandey met senior HP BJP leaders at Peterhoff.
The central observers would submit a report to the party high command and an announcement on the new chief minister would be made soon, party sources said.
The observers avoided meeting media persons and left without giving any hint about the name of the next HP CM.
Veteran party leader and Kangra MP, Shanta Kumar, Mandi MP Ram Swaroop, Shimla MP Varinder Kashyap and four times MLA from Shimla Suresh Bharadwaj met the observers and gave their views.
Union Health Minister JP Nadda and five times MLA Jai Ram Thakur are the front runners for the post and announcement of the leader would be made after perusing the report submitted by the observers, party leaders said.
The leadership issue cropped up following the shocking defeat of the BJP's chief ministerial face Prem Kumar Dhumal, which threw the leadership race wide open.
Dhumal who was defeated from Sujanpur by Rajinder Rana of the Congress.
Boisterous scenes were witnessed at Peterhoff, as supporters of Dhumal and Jairam raised slogans in favour of their leaders.
The slogan shouting irked senior party leader Shanta Kumar, who said: "If I were the president of the party, I would not have tolerated such indiscipline and expelled these workers."