Thiruvananthapuram | The Congress will begin the process of selecting Kerala's new chief minister on Thursday, with AICC observers set to meet the newly elected MLAs, party leaders said here.

AICC observers Mukul Wasnik and Ajay Maken arrived in the state capital on Wednesday evening.

They will take the views of the newly elected MLAs on the choice of the new chief minister.

"We have been asked to be present at the KPCC headquarters to attend the Congress Legislative Party meeting. They may hold individual one-to-one meeting with the MLAs," a party MLA said.

He said the AICC observers will also meet the leaders of the Congress allies to take their views on the CM before leaving for New Delhi.

After landing in Thiruvananthapuram, both Wasnik and Maken visited the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) headquarters here and held discussions with party stalwart A K Antony and party general secretary Deepa Das Munshi.

Later, speaking to reporters, Maken said that the CLP meeting will be held on Thursday and that he and Wasnik were in Kerala to attend that. "So, nothing more to say," he said.

Wasnik said that Munshi was the in-charge of Kerala and he was not aware if anyone else has been asked to attend the meeting. "She can take a call on that. It is a meeting of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP)," he said.

The observers are in Kerala to speak to the Congress MLAs in connection with who should be the chief minister of the state.

Senior Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala, V D Satheesan, and AICC general secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal are the three top contenders for the post.

While Chennithala and Satheesan were elected from Haripad and Paravoor constituencies respectively, Venugopal did not contest the polls.