A week after it received a drubbing at the hustings, the Congress in Orissa on Sunday elected former minister and four-time MLA Bhupinder Singh from Kalahandi as the Leader of Opposition.

Singh, 58, has been a minister in both the J B Patnaik government and the Giridhar Gamang government, and is known to be a JB loyalist. He was elected from Kalahandi’s Narla Assembly constituency.

The 26-member Congress Legislature Party (CLP), which met at Congress Bhawan this afternoon under the watchful eyes of Union minister and Orissa in-charge general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, decided on Singh’s name though Bissamkataka MLA Dambarudhar Ulaka was looked at as a stronger contender owing to his long experience.

The CLP chose tribal Mohana MLA Chakradhar Paik as its deputy leader while the well-read and suave Prasad Harichandan from Satyabadi was named the chief whip. Party MLA from Baajarajnagar Anup Sai was named the CLP secretary.

Azad, who arrived in Orissa to take stock of the party’s debacle, said organisational weakness at the panchayat level caused the poor show. “The hijacking of the Central Government schemes by the Naveen Patnaik Government also resulted in our defeat,” he said while admitting that infighting in the party was another reason.

Congress legislators, who took part in Sunday’s stock-taking exercise, said the change of guard at the state Congress just before the polls sent a confusing signal to the electorate.