Sushil Shinde with daughter and MLA Praniti at the Congress meeting in Mumbai. (PTI)

Oct. 24: Sonia Gandhi retained Ashok Chavan and Bhupinder Singh Hooda as chief ministers of Maharashtra and Haryana late tonight after daylong pressure for their removal from their home-state critics.

The announcements were made by central observers A.K. Antony (for Maharashtra) and Prithviraj Chavan (for Haryana) well past midnight.

Earlier, as Sonia grappled with unrelenting opposition to the incumbent chief ministers from detractors who ignored all the high command’s subtle hints, sources had said the party president might exercise her veto power to install the men of her choice.

Eight MPs and 28 MLAs from Haryana had expressed a desire for change, and supporters of Vilasrao Deshmukh and Narayan Rane had told central observers in Mumbai that Ashok Chavan was incapable of running Maharashtra.

Sources, however, said from the outset that Sonia was not in favour of dropping Chavan. When the central observers realised at the Mumbai legislature party meeting that Chavan lacked majority support, they got a resolution passed that asked Sonia to pick the chief minister.

Rivals-turned-friends Deshmukh and Rane, meanwhile, indicated they were joining hands against Chavan by meeting for 30 minutes before the CLP session and later arriving in Delhi on the same aircraft, along with Union minister and Sonia loyalist Sushil Kumar Shinde. The trio were invited to the 10 Janpath meeting.

But long before Chavan’s name was announced as chief minister, a senior Deshmukh aide had told The Telegraph in Mumbai that the party might give Chavan “one-and-a-half to two years to show his performance before a (possible) change is made”.

Sources said the eight Haryana MPs had given it in writing to Sonia that they were opposed to Hooda, after a meeting among themselves where aspiring chief minister Kumari Selja was present. The 28 MLAs too were ready to testify before Sonia against Hooda.

Randeep Singh Surjewala and Kiran Chaudhary had grabbed their chance to enter the fray as possible compromise candidates.

In Mumbai, the Congress has increased pressure on the NCP to cede the Speaker’s post since it has 20 seats more than Sharad Pawar’s party. The NCP may lose seven portfolios and get only 17 in the 42-member ministry, sources said.