Going for status quo, Congress has named Ashok Chavan and Bhupinder Singh Hooda as leaders of its legislature parties in Maharashtra and Haryana, clearing the decks for their return as Chief Ministers.

Chavan and Hooda were chosen to head the CLPs in their respective states well past midnight last night by Congress President Sonia Gandhi after she held several rounds of consultations with senior party leaders who as central observers had interacted with the newly-elected party MLAs in the last two days on the leadership issue.

After long-drawn meetings at 10 Janpath, the official residence of Gandhi, senior party leaders A K Antony and Prithviraj Chavan told reporters that 51-year-old Ashok Chavan will be the CLP leader in Maharashtra while Hooda, 62, will head the legislature party in Haryana.

Hooda's nomination as CLP leader set at rest speculation about his continuance in the top post after Congress failed to secure majority on its own in the 90-member assembly, falling short by six seats. However, the party has managed to secure the support of seven independents and is trying to bring Haryana Janhit Congress led by Bhajan Lal on board.

The swearing-in of Ashok Chavan as Maharashtra Chief Minister is expected to take place only after Tuesday when Congress' alliance partner NCP elects its legislature party leader who will be the Deputy Chief Minister.

Antony, who along with AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh and senior leader K Rehman met all the 82 party MLAs in Mumbai separately earlier yesterday to know their mind, said "a large majority" of the legislators had left a decision on the leadership issue to Sonia Gandhi.

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