Pocharam all set to become Speaker

​Hyderabad: Former minister and senior TRS MLA from Banswada, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, is all set to be elected as the Speaker of Telangana Legislative Assembly. Reddy will be succeeding S Madhusudhanachary who was the first Speaker of the first Assembly after formation of Telangana State. 

Reddy will be declared elected unanimously on Friday since he is the only one who had filed the nomination. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had appealed to opposition members to cooperate in electing the Speaker unanimously and all had agreed. The Chief Minister proposed the name of Srinivas Reddy and Congress leader Bhatti Vikramarka seconded.

The other MLAs who were present during the nomination were Ahmed Bin Abdulla Balala, A Rekha Naik, Abraham, Talasani Srinivas Yadav. Srinivas Reddy filed six sets of nomination papers for the Speaker’s post. Pocharam Srinivas Reddy started his political career in 1976 and became Primary Agricultural Society (PAC) president of Desaipet village.

He was president of Budimi Cooperative Bank and was elected as Nizamabad DCCB in 1987. He was elected as MLA from Banswada Assembly Constituency in 1994. He became minister in 1998 when he was made minister for Housing. He again became MLA in 1999 and served as minister for mines and geology. In 2000, he became minister for Panchayat Raj.

He was elected again in 2009 but resigned to join Telangana Rashtra Samiti for separate Telangana. He was re-elected as MLA on the TRS ticket and actively participated in Telangana agitation. He was made agriculture minister in the Telangana government during 2014 to 2018.

Born to Parige Raji Reddy and Parige Papamma on February 10, 1949. Reddy is an engineering graduate and is married to P Pushpa. KCR considers him lucky and often calls him as Lakshmi Putrudu. Rao convinced Srinivas Reddy to accept the Speaker’s post as most of the leaders were reluctant to take that post as it carries a jinx that the leader who chairs the Speaker’s post loses next election. Sources said that the TRS chief had assured him of providing ticket to his son from Bhanswada if he desires not to contest the next election.