(Image source from: NDTV Khabar)

A day after choosing former Union Minister Kamal Nath as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Congress President Rahul Gandhi is set to choose the party's chief minister for Rajasthan today.

The race for the top job is between the party's veteran leader Ashok Gehlot and young face Sachin Pilot.

The decision on Chhattisgarh is likewise expected today. State leaders TS Singhdeo, Bhupesh Baghel, and Charan Das Mahant will be Delhi for meetings with Gandhi.

Gandhi said on Thursday the party would before long decide on the chief minister of Rajasthan. "Consultations with MLAs and party workers are on, you will see a chief minister soon."

Gandhi met party leaders, CM aspirants and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi during the day on Thursday.

As party leaders discussed the options in Delhi, supporters got restless in Rajasthan blocking roads and staging protests. They gathered outside the party office and the residences of the two state leaders holding placards, cutouts and shouting slogans. In a late night message, Gehlot and Pilot appealed for calm and urged supporters to maintain discipline.

The Congress went into elections without a chief ministerial candidate but fielded both, experienced two-time chief minister Gehlot and Pilot, who said he had revived the party after its 2013 rout when the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) Vasundhara Raje swept the polls.

This is not the first time a party has delayed announcing the names for the top job in a state. The BJP took nine days after the results of the Maharashtra elections were announced in October 2014 to pick Devendra Fadnavis as its chief minister. And in March 2017, it took the BJP eight days after the Uttar Pradesh election results to name Yogi Adityanath for the job.

-Sowmya Sangam