Veteran leader and former Odisha law minister Narasingha Mishra was today unanimously elected as the leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in the State Assembly.
The name of Mishra, a four-time legislator, was proposed for the CLP leader's post by Jagatsinghpur MLA Chiranjib Biswal and seconded by Dabugaon MLA Bhujabal Majhi and Koraput MLA K C Sagaria at the CLP meeting attended by AICC general secretary Ajay Maken as Observer.
Party's Odisha in-charge B K Hariprasad and OPCC president Jaydev Jena were also present in the meeting.
"We are happy to announce that Narasingha Mishra has been unanimously elected as the CLP leader," Maken said here, adding, the MLA from Balangir would lead the Congress's fight in the Assembly.
Earlier, the 16 newly elected Congress MLAs met and passed a one-line resolution authorising Congress president Sonia Gandhi to take a decision on the new CLP leader.
"However, the party president suggested us to unanimously decide a name after consulting the MLAs," Maken said.
Both Maken and Hariprasad held one-to-one discussion with each party MLA before informing the party high command about the choice of the newly elected lawmakers.
Maken said OPCC president Jaydev Jena would intimate the OLA secretary about the decision of the CLP.
Mishra was first elected to the 10th Assembly from Loisingha segment in 1990 on a Janata Dal ticket. He was also a member of the 11th, 13th and the present 15th Assembly. He was the law minister of Odisha from 1990 to 1995 in Biju Patnaik's government.
Mishra is likely to be announced as the Leader of Opposition by speaker Niranjan Pujari tomorrow on the first day of the first session of the 15th Assembly.
Congress is the main opposition party in the Odisha Assembly with 16 members followed 10 members of BJP, one member each of CPI-M and Samata Kranti Dal. While Independents have won in two seats, the ruling BJD bagged 117 seats in the 147-member Odisha Assembly.
