Kona Raghupati elected Dy Speaker of AP Legislative Assembly

Kona Raghupati was on Tuesday unanimously elected Deputy Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative assembly. As Raghupati's nomination was the only one filed for the post, Speaker Tammineni Sitaram formally announced the former's election in the House in the afternoon.

Leader of the House Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, ministers Buggana Rajendranath, P Ramachandra Reddy and other YSRC legislators then escorted Raghupati to the Speaker's chair. Leader of the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu also came to Raghupati and hugged him before joining the others in leading the new Deputy Speaker to the Chair.

The TDP leader had faced flak for not following "tradition" in escorting Sitaram to the Chair when he was elected Speaker on June 13. Raghupati was elected to the Assembly for the second successive time from Bapatla constituency in Guntur district.

Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy offered the Deputy Speaker's post to a Brahmin as the community could not be accommodated in the state Council of Ministers. Raghupati's father Kona Prabhakara Rao had served as Speaker of the Assembly in 1981 in the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh.

Raghupati thanked the members for electing him as Deputy Speaker.

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