Chandigarh, Feb. 26 :    Chandigarh, Feb. 26:  Lady Luck has finally smiled on Amrinder Singh. The Maharaja of Patiala was today 'unanimously' elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party and will be sworn in as Punjab chief minister tomorrow. Party president Sonia Gandhi took the decision three hours after legislators met to 'elect' their leader at the jam-packed Congress Bhavan here. Central observer Ahmad Patel announced his name. The meeting, scheduled to begin at 11.30 am, could start only at 12.30 pm as Amrinder arrived late. It was also attended by arch-rival and chief ministerial aspirant Rajinder Kaur Bhattal who was among the last to arrive and the first to leave. She sat on the stage, four seats away from Amrinder. The meeting was attended by four Central Congress leaders, Motilal Vora, Ahmad Patel, Hari Prasad and Ambika Soni. Soni had rushed to Chandigarh from Uttaranchal after failing to get MLAs there to narrow down their choice of five candidates for the chief minister's post. Amrinder will be sworn in at the Punjab Raj Bhavan tomorrow. 'I thank party legislators and all those who helped the Congress win the polls. I will not let the people of Punjab down. Punjab is in an economic mess and we intend to pull it out from the abyss soon. People wanted a secular party to come to power in Punjab and our win reflects the people's wishes,' he said. According to Vora, the Central team 'heard each legislator individually before asking Soniaji to take the decision'. He denied there was any rift in the party, saying the legislators had left the decision to the Congress president. It took Sonia almost half-an-hour to name her choice on phone from Delhi after being told of the MLAs' 'wish'. Bhattal said she welcomed the decision to elect Amrinder as the CLP leader and chief minister. 'I will support the government,' she declared, but added that she would not be 'part of the government by joining the ministry'. Bhattal is expected to accept Sonia's reported offer that she become state party chief. 'After being chief minister, how can I accept any post in the government?' she asked. Amrinder was born on March 11, 1942. The son of Maharaja of Patiala Yadvindra Singh studied in Sanawar and Doon School and joined the National Defence Academy in 1959. Commissioned by the army in 1963, he resigned from the force in 1965 after his father was appointed ambassador to Italy and he was needed at home. Elected MP on a Congress ticket in 1983, Amrinder resigned from the Lok Sabha in 1984 to protest Operation Bluestar. In 1985, he joined the Surjit Singh Barnala-led Shiromani Akali Dal government and was made Cabinet minister in charge of agriculture, forests, rural development and panchayats. A year later, he resigned from the government and party. From 1986 to 1991, he remained in political wilderness before forming the Akali Dal (Panthic) in 1991. In 1997, he revived the Akali Dal (Panthic) and merged it with the Congress.