The speaker of the newly constituted Telangana Assembly, Banswada legislator Pocharam Srinivas Reddy filed his nomination papers on Thursday. His name was proposed by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, T Harish Rao, Rekha Naik, VM Abraham (all TRS) Bhatti Vikramarka (Congress) and Ahmed Balala (MIM). Only on Wednesday night, chief minister let out the name of the MLA whom he wanted to be the speaker by calling Srinivas Reddy and conveying his decision.
The 69-year-old engineer and six-time legislator served as Agriculture Minister in KCR’s earlier cabinet. The Pocharam Srinivas Reddy was re-elected to the Assembly from the Banswada constituency in Nizamabad district in December’s elections.
Pocharam Srinivas Reddy has also served as a minister in the cabinet of N. Chandrababu Naidu in undivided Andhra Pradesh. He quit the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 2011 to join the TRS, which was then fighting for separate statehood to Telangana. The Srinivas Reddy will be the second Speaker of the Telangana Assembly. Madhusudhana Chary, who was the first speaker in the newly-created state, lost the polls.