Next Maharashtra chief minister to be announced

Mumbai: Maharashtra is in the eye of a political storm as the replacement for out going chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh will be named on Thursday.

Senior Congress leaders like External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister AK Antony will be in Mumbai to meet Congress MLAs and decide on a successor to Deshmukh.

After three days of dragging its feet, Congress finally showed Deshmukh the door. Deshmukh had come under a cloud of criticism for the manner in which the Mumbai terror attack was handled.

Deshmukh also drew some flak for surveying the damages at the Taj hotel with a filmmaker and his actor son Riteish in tow.

The names of Sushil Kumar Shinde, Prithviraj Chavan, Ashok Chavan, Narayan Rane and Balasaheb Vikhe Patil are doing the rounds as possible contenders for Maharashtra's top job. Ashok Chavan seems to be front-runner as the Congress and ally NCP need to crystallise on a choice acceptable to both parties.

Incidentally, outgoing chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is the third political causality of the Mumbai terror attacks after Mr Shivraj Patil, who quit as Union Home minister and NCP’s RR Patil who was the state's deputy CM as well as home minister.