Anglo-Indian Stephenson re-nominated as MLA

​Hyderabad:  The first Cabinet meeting of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s government has decided to re-nominate Elvis Stephenson as an MLA for the second term under the Anglo-Indian quota. He will be taking oath along with the newly-elected members.

The Cabinet meeting held here held on Monday was attended by the lone Cabinet minister Mohd Mahmood Ali, decided to re-nominate Stephenson so that there was no loss of precious time to work as MLA and serve the community. Normally, the practice has been that the nominated MLA under this quota was filled after the elected members were sworn in. Sometimes, it used to take couple of months and intense lobbying for the post used to take place. But this time, KCR decided to bid adieu to this practice.

The 61-year-old Stephenson was nominated to the Assembly in 2014 after the TRS formed the government in the newly-formed T state.  He hogged the political limelight when the then TDP leader A Revanth Reddy was caught on camera offering kickbacks to the MLA to vote in favour of the Telugu Desam Party candidate in the MLC elections.

Soon after the Cabinet decision, Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar on behalf of the Election Commission issued order nominating  Stephenson as member of the Telangana Assembly. 

The Cabinet also decided to provide copies of the Constitution, Assembly procedures, booklets and other information connected to the Legislature procedure in Telugu, English and Urdu languages to all the MLAs-elect. These copies were shown to the Chief Minister by Legislature Secretary Vedantam Narsimha Charyulu after the Cabinet meeting.   

The Cabinet has placed on record its deep appreciation to the Election Commission in general and Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar for successful and peaceful conduct of Assembly elections. The Cabinet has also placed on record its appreciation to the Election Commission machinery.