Manmohan Singh with Sonia Gandhi during the programme to mark the death anniversary of Rajesh Pilot in Delhi on Wednesday. (PTI)

New Delhi, June 12: The Congress is still not united on projecting a chief minister in a state election.

The issue was discussed at length by the seven-member panel Sonia Gandhi has set up to “re-energise” her party before the next slew of state polls and the general election, due next year.

The committee, headed by A.K. Antony, was the only structured response to the defeats the Congress has suffered in states and was meant as a mid-course review of some of its policies.

One issue was whether to put up a face before an election so that voters know in advance who their chief minister could be. The issue acquired a sense of urgency after the defeat in Gujarat, where the BJP fought the elections on the strength of Narendra Modi’s persona and politics.

The BJP followed the same principle in Karnataka, where it projected B.S. Yeddyurappa. The Janata Dal (Secular) had H.D. Kumaraswamy, but nobody in the Congress could say who their “face” was: Mallikarjuna Kharge or S.M. Krishna or Siddharamiah.

After the southern defeat, there was a clamour to project a chief minister candidate. But Sonia’s advisers said nothing “drastic” should be done.

Their point was projecting a chief minister was “undemocratic” because it deprived elected legislators the right to choose their leader.

The obverse opinion was Indian elections were increasingly resembling US presidential contests where personalities outweighed issues. “The business of allowing the MLAs to choose their leader looks a bit anachronistic,” said a panel member.

Sources admitted the process was often farcical because, typically, the new MLAs would meet and pass a resolution, “authorising” the “high command” to anoint their leader.

Where there was more than one claimant, the jockeying got intense and sometimes unsavoury, as had happened in Maharashtra in 2005 and in Uttarakhand in 2002.

“Once the divisions are open, the foundations of the government get weak because everybody knows there is more than one power centre and the incumbent chief minister could lose his job any moment,” a source said.

The Antony panel is expected to submit its report on June 21. Sources said the members had agreed on other points like announcing candidates well ahead of polls, pruning state and district committees and dropping as many sitting MLAs as possible to buck anti-incumbency.