Know Your MLA: G Prasad Kumar, a journey from a farmer to Assembly Speaker

Rangareddy: After suffering two consecutive losses in 2014 and 2018, senior politician and hardcore Congress leader Gaddam Prasad Kumar managed to retain the Vikarabad seat in December 2023 by defeating the sitting BRS MLA, Dr Methuku Anand.

Vikarabad, a reserved constituency for scheduled caste candidates, is one of the seven Assembly constituencies of the Chevella Lok Sabha segment, which include Maheshwaram, Rajendranagar, Serilingampally, Tandur, Pargi, and Chevella.

Gaddam Prasad Kumar was declared elected from Vikarabad constituency with a margin of 12,893 votes, as he secured a total number of 86,885 votes as against the 73,992 votes polled in favour of the sitting BRS MLA, Dr Methuku Anand. With this decisive win and a 49.86 per cent vote share, he managed to avenge his 2018 defeat in the hands of the then BRS candidate, Dr Methuku Anand.

Being a senior politician and a former member of the United Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, G Prasad Kumar served as a minister for handlooms and textiles, spinning mills, and small-scale industries in 2012 under the cabinet of the then chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy after being elected for the first time from Vikarabad in 2009.

However, Prasad Kumar suffered two consecutive losses in the 2014 and 2018 Assembly elections to BRS candidates B Sanjeeva Rao (2014) and Dr Methuku Anand (2018) before being elected from Vikarabad again in December 2023.

Hailing from Vikarabad district, 60-year-old Congress leader Gaddam Prasad Kumar grew up in a farmer’s family, and his unflinching attachment to the Congress party helped him rise to the coveted post of speaker of the Telangana Legislative Assembly after Congress leadership proposed his name, which led to his unanimous election.

Following the formation of Telangana State, G Prasad Kumar is the third speaker of the Telangana Legislative Assembly after Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and Sirikonda Madusudhana Chary.