Gaddam Prasad Kumar all set to become first Dalit Speaker of Telangana

Except the BJP, all other parties in the Assembly, including BRS, AIMIM and CPI supported candidature of Gaddam Prasad Kumar

Hyderabad: Gaddam Prasad Kumar is all set to get elected unopposed as the Speaker of the third Telangana State Legislative Assembly. He filed the nomination on Wednesday and as he is the only person to file his nomination for the post, his election on Thursday will be only a formality. He will be the first Speaker to represent the Dalit community in the Telangana Assembly.

The Speaker election is scheduled to be conducted in the Assembly on Thursday. Pro-tem Speaker Akbaruddin Owaisi will announce the unanimous election of Kumar as the Speaker.

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Except the BJP, all other parties in the Assembly, including BRS, AIMIM and CPI supported his candidature. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, his cabinet colleagues, BRS working president KT Rama Rao, AIMIM MLAs and CPI MLA Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao were present when the nomination was submitted to the Legislature Secretary around 12.30 pm on Wednesday.

Following a request from Legislative Affairs Minister D Sridhar Babu, BRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao decided to support the candidature of Prasad Kumar to the post. Accordingly, BRS working president KT Rama Rao and former Minister T Harish Rao visited the Assembly, attended the nomination filing programme. Along with Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Rama Rao also signed the nomination papers supporting the candidature of Prasad Kumar.

A second-term MLA, Prasad Kumar has been selected by the Congress leadership to the post keeping his experience and non-controversial persona in view. Elected from Vikarabad constituency in the recent Assembly polls, he first entered the Assembly in undivided Andhra Pradesh from Vikarabad constituency on behalf of the Congress in 2009.

He was inducted into the Kiran Kumar Reddy Cabinet as Minister for Handlooms and Textiles in 2012 and continued in the post till the State bifurcation in 2014. However, he lost the two subsequent elections to BRS candidates B Sanjeev Rao and Methuku Anand in 2014 and 2018 respectively. In the recent elections, Prasad defeated Anand by a margin of Rs 12,893 votes.

He will be the third Assembly Speaker after the formation of Telangana, succeeding S Madhusudhana Chary and Pocharam Srinivas Reddy.