New HP chief minister: Meeting of BJP MLAs convened tomorrow

Amid the suspense over the new Himachal Pradesh chief minister, a meeting of BJP MLAs has been convened tomorrow and they would be addressed by the central observers, the party's state unit chief Satpal Singh Satti said today.
According to senior party leaders, announcement regarding the new chief minister would be made soon, may be at the meeting of the MLAs, but there was no official communication about it yet.
The two-member team of central observers, which was in the state on December 21 and 22, had taken feedback from members of the state BJP's core committee, MPs and some MLAs.

Union Health Minister J P 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 of the observers, party leaders had said.
The two central observers -- Union ministers Nirmala Sitharamana and Narendra Singh Tomar -- would arrive here tomorrow and address the MLAs, Satti said.
The leadership issue cropped up following the shocking defeat of the BJPs 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.

Satti, who himself lost from Una, said that inspite of "unexpected results" in some constituencies the performance of the party was spectacular.
"After feedback from candidates at a meeting in Bilaspur, ahead of counting, we were expecting at least 42 seats. The party won 44 seats," he said.
The state BJP chief said the performance of the BJP in tribal areas was satisfying as it grabbed two out three seats reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates.