72-year old Kamal Nath, one of the longest serving Parliamentarians and who is among the top rung of the Congress leadership, was chosen yesterday by Congress President Rahul Gandhi as the new chief-minister of Madhya Pradesh.

Nath, who had held various portfolios at the Centre during the decade-long Congress Congress-led UPA regime from 2004-14, was the front contender for the post of chief-minister along with Jyotiradiya Scindia, a former Union Minister and a hugely popular Scindia family scion.

Congress has wrested the States of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in the recently concluded Assembly by-polls. In Madhya Pradesh, though, it fell short of simple majority by bagging 114 out of the 230 seats. BSP is propping up the Congress Govt. as it wants to keep the BJP (which got 108) seats out of power. Nath and Scindia met Governor Anandiben Patel and staked claim to form the next Govt.

Apparently at the high-command’s behest, newly-elected Congress MLAs met and chose Kamal Nath as the floor leader of the party in Assembly. Soon after his election, Kamal Nath thanked Scindia and other MLAs and was later congratulated by the high-command. Party’s Twitter account hailed his election and said his election as chief-minister was the ‘commencement of a new era’ in the State’s history. Date of swearing-in of the Kamal Nath-led Ministry wasn’t yet finalized.