Oil marketing PSUs have been advised by the ministry of petroleum and natural gas to defer the process of selection of dealers and distributors of petroleum products in Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mizoram which are going to polls.

The process will be deferred till the Election Commission declares as over the election process in the five states, an official release said.

It may be recalled that oil PSUs had commenced the process of selecting dealers after government gave them freedom to select dealers on their own following de-regulation of the oil sector.

Similarly, the selection process is also to be kept in abeyance in the districts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where bye-elections have been announced for the state-legislative assemblies.

"The oil PSUs would be at freedom to re-start the process of selecting dealers after the election process in the above mentioned states is declared over by the Election Commission of India," the release said.

Quashing news reports that his ministry had proposed to sell about 4,800 petrol pumps of IOC to HPCL and BPCL, Shourie had said on Monday night that "there is no proposal from me or through me to this effect."

Sources said that two ministries would have to expedite consultations to ensure that options and modalities are firmed up for consideration of the CCD by three months.

They, however, ruled out the possibility of formation of inter-ministerial group for IOC saying that such a procedure is exercised only in case of executing divestment process in a selected PSU.