Pocharam Srinivasa Reddy to become Telangana assembly speaker

Senior TRS MLA and former minister Pocharam Srinivasa Reddy are set to be elected unanimously as Speaker of the newly-elected Telangana Assembly, whose first session commenced Thursday. Reddy's name was proposed for the Speaker's post by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, the main opposition Congress MLA M Bhatti Vikramarka and others, official sources said. He would be declared elected Speaker Friday as only his nomination was filed for the post, they said.

Rao had Wednesday reached out to Congress, AIMIM and BJP to make the Speaker's election unanimous. While AIMIM, a friendly party of TRS, and BJP agreed to the proposal immediately, Congress gave its nod subsequently. The TRS won 88 seats in the 119-member assembly, over the two-thirds majority, in the December 7 last elections. Reddy, born in 1949, had served as the Agriculture Minister in the previous TRS government. Earlier Thursday, the assembly began its first session with pro-tem Speaker Mumtaz Ahmed Khan of AIMIM in the Chair.

A total of 114 newly elected members took oath as MLAs and five others were absent, assembly sources said. Chief Minister Rao was the first to take the oath. The absentees included BJP's T Raja Singh, who had said he did not want to take oath in Khan's presence as the AIMIM "speaks against Hindus and its leaders do not sing Vande Mataram' or say Bharat Mata Ki Jai". Singh, however, had said he would take oath after the regular Speaker assumes charge. On January 19, the Governor would address the joint session of the assembly and the legislative council.