Mumbai: Making a comeback to centre stage of Maharashtra politics after a gap of almost two years, Congress veteran Vilasrao Deshmukh was today (Oct 29, 2004) elected legislative party leader, clearing his way to be the 23rd Chief Minister of the State.

Deshmukh's election at the end of the day-long exercise by Congress legislators at Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai should not come as a surprise in view of his image of a known Pawar-baiter and the latter's party getting an upper hand with 71 MLAs compared to 69 of the Congress in the just-concluded Assembly polls.

Deshmukh piped incumbent Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, the most well-known dalit face of the party in the State and for being soft on the Maratha strongman, for the post after a majority of MLAs favoured the former for the top post, party sources said.

The entire election process was marked by a swift turn of events during the course of the day. Shinde, a frontrunner, when the CLP proceedings began, appeared to have lost the race after Central Congress leaders closeted themselves with Shinde and Deshmukh to decide the leadership issue.

Central Congress leaders, including Gulam Nabi Azad, Ashok Gehlot and Margert Alva spoke to their counterpart in New Delhi including Ahmed Patel and Ambika Soni and a seal of approval came from the party high command for Deshmukh.

In the fag end of the CLP meeting confusion prevailed as Shinde supporters claimed that their leader had emerged victorious. But their jubilation was short lived as central leaders came in the Vidhan Bhavan foyer and announced Deshmukh's name.