Hyderabad: TS Assembly gets its first Dalit Speaker

Hyderabad : Congress legislator from Vikarabad Gaddam Prasad Kumar was unanimously elected Speaker of the Telangana Assembly on Thursday and became the first Dalit Speaker of the youngest state.

Prasad was the only candidate to have filed the nomination. On the request of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and other ministers, the BRS and the BJP agreed to make the Speaker election unanimous. Soon after the Pro-Tem Speaker Akbaruddin Owaisi declared that Prasad was elected as the third Speaker of the Assembly, the Chief Minister and his deputy Bhatti Vikramarka and BRS MLA KT Rama Rao conducted him to the Speaker's Chair.

Prasad Kumar, MLA from Vikarabad (SC), had served as a minister during the Congress regime in undivided Andhra Pradesh.

After Prasad assumed the Chair, Revanth Reddy thanked all the parties for supporting Prasad. He said the Speaker has eight sisters and knows how to run a joint family. The Assembly is also like a joint family and he hoped that the Speaker would run the House without any discrimination and show solutions to the problems faced by the people.

The CM said Prasad grew from the MPTC post to the Speaker’s post. He recalled how Prasad had solved the problems of weavers while being the Textiles Minister. He also recalled how he had converted Vikarabad as a satellite town. He has played a key role in the widening of road between Appa Junction to Vikarabad and has never been away from public issues, the CM said.

The Deputy CM said the Speaker would help in discussing the public issues and ensure meaningful discussions and solutions come out in the House. Minister Sridhar Babu recalled how Prasad as Textile Minister ensured handloom stalls in bus stations.

The Opposition members wanted the Speaker to give ample time for all the members. KT Rama Rao hoped that Prasad would also preserve the democratic values like the earlier Speakers S Madhusudhana Chary and Pocharam Srinivas Reddy. CPI member Sambasiva Rao suggested to the Speaker to study the performance of earlier Speakers and give more time to the members like him.

Earlier, the Pro-Tem Speaker administered the oath to the MLAs, including Ministers Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and N Uttam Kumar Reddy and BRS’ leader K T Rama Rao. He also administered the oath to the BJP members, including T Raja Singh.

Before adjourning the session for the day, he informed the House that Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan would address the joint sitting of both Assembly and Council on Friday.