The Congress will ask newly elected party legislators in Haryana to evolve a consensus on the chief minister, a senior party leader said today in New Delhi.

Three aspirants made it clear it was for party chief Sonia Gandhi to choose the leader.

"We will ask legislators to meet and decide who will be the chief minister. There is no doubt on that," Congress General Secretary Ashok Gehlot told reporters as trends from counting indicated the party was headed for a landslide victory in the state.

The consensus will be based on inputs from the high command, he said.

Haryana Congress Working President Randeep Singh Surjewale, Union Minister Kumari Selja and Virender Singh, all believed to be in the race for the chief minister, said it was for the high command to choose the leader.

"There will be no difficulty in choosing the chief minister. The elected legislators will meet and decide who will be the chief minister," Janardan Dwivedi, party general secretary in charge of Haryana, told reporters in New Delhi.

On public comments by some leaders about their claim to the top post, Dwivedi said, "We can contain their public utterances but not their aspirations. Anybody can aspire to become chief minister. What we can tell them is not to behave in public in such a manner."

He said the trends in the counting of votes in the state had gone according to the party's expectations and claimed it was a vote for the party's performance in other states and against the misrule of the Om Prakash Chautala regime.