New Delhi: Manmohan Singh will be the next Prime Minister of India.

Singh was elected leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) at a general body meeting at the Central Hall of Parliament after Sonia Gandhi rejected appeals by Congress leaders to go back on her decision not to accept Prime Ministership.

Elections 2004-Where is India heading...
Political Parties in India

Seventyone-year-old Singh was elected at an in-camera meeting of the CPP in contrast to the election of Gandhi on May 15. Gandhi will now remain chairperson of the CPP and Singh will be deputy chairperson.

Singh, accompanied by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is slated to meet President A P J Abdul Kalam at 20:15 hours (IST) to stake claim to form the new Government.

Finance Minister in Narasimha Rao's Government between 1991 and 1996, Singh belongs to Rajya Sabha and in fact has been Leader of the Opposition there.

Now in Lok Sabha, the Leader of the House will have to be someone else who belongs to the Lower House.

Usually, the Prime Minister is the Leader of the House in Lok Sabha when he is its member.