Chandigarh, Sept. 30 -- After keeping everyone guessing for nearly a year, the Congress high command on Monday, appointed former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as the leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP). Congress president, Mallikarjun Kharge also appointed former Haryana minister, Rao Narender Singh as the president of the Haryana Congress. Orders to this effect were issued by party general secretary, KC Venugopal on Monday. Hooda's appointment as the CLP leader will also mean that he will formally become the leader of opposition in the state assembly.Following the shock victory of the BJP in the 2024 assembly polls, the Congress high command had deliberately avoided naming the leader of the legislature party. Party insiders said that Congress high command was not keen to name Hooda, under whose leadership the Congress lost the 2024 election plot, as the CLP leader. "What made them change their mind after almost a year is anyone's guess,'' said a former minister.Ten days after the 2024 assembly poll loss, the newly elected 37 Congress MLAs from Haryana who had met at Chandigarh on October 18, 2024, to elect their leader only passed a resolution authorising the party high command to choose the CLP leader to lead the party in the state assembly. Four central observers of the party - Ajay Maken, TS Singh Deo, Ashok Gehlot and Partap Singh Bajwa had held a one-on-one private session with all the MLAs to know their point of view on October 18, 2024. After 90 minutes of discussion, a resolution was passed by the MLAs authorising the party high command to select the CLP leader. "Since then, there was a studied silence as the party high command refused to give its mind on whether they wanted to bank on the old warhorse Hooda or risk going with a non-Jat MLA to lead the party in the state assembly,'' said a party office bearer. The appointment of former minister, Rao Narender Singh, a soft-spoken Ahir and backward class (BC) leader is seen as a balancing act to attract the BCs in the state. With a BC leader, Nayab Saini of the BJP at the helm as chief minister, the Congress has made an attempt to make inroads in the 33% backward class vote-bank including about 5 % Ahirs who are mostly concentrated in Mahendergarh, Rewari, Gurgaon and Bhiwani districts and often feel left out. "There are at least 11 southern Haryana assembly constituencies where Ahirs decide the poll outcome. The BJP won 10 of those 11 assembly constituencies in 2024, won 8 in 2019 assembly elections and all of the 11 in 2014 assembly polls. Many Ahir leaders feel left out despite the region's whole hearted contribution which helped the BJP form three successive governments in Haryana. It is true that the Congress ignored Ahirwal during its reign. The BJP did better but did not live up to the expectations of the Ahirs. Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh's calibrated outbursts in fact are an expression of his disappointment at the state of affairs,'' said a senior Congress leader. The newly appointed state Congress chief, Rao Narender Singh, who replaces Udai Bhan, a dalit leader, is known for his proximity to Hooda. In 2009 assembly elections, Rao Narender contested and won on the symbol of Kuldeep Bishnoi's Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) but ditched Bishnoi to switch sides along with other HJC MLAs and merged the HJC with the Congress. He was rewarded with a ministerial berth by Hooda. Rao Narender lost the 2024 assembly election from Narnaul assembly constituency by about 17000 votes....