Know Your MLA: Emerging victorious amidst anti-incumbency

Nizamabad: Pocharam Srinivas Reddy (74) is a known face in the political circles of the United Andhra Pradesh and in the newly formed State of Telangana, post-bifurcation of the United Andhra Pradesh.

Pocharam completed his schooling in Nizambad and later obtained his Bachelor of Engineering from Nagarjuna Engineering College.

He started his political journey with Congress in 1976 and served as the president of the village cooperative society in 1977. Later, he contested for the Samithi president of Banswada in 1980 unsuccessfully.

Parting his ways with Congress, Pocharam joined the TDP and served as the TDP district president of Nizambad in 1988.

The same year, he also contested the Nizambad parliament seat and lost. However, he was elected from the Banswada Assembly segment in 1994 on a TDP ticket and again in 2009 as the alliance candidate of TDP and BRS.

Twice, Pocharam served as a minister in the TDP government in the United Andhra Pradesh. Pocharam resigned as an MLA and the TDP party membership to join the emerging TRS, spearheading the separate Telangana movement in 2011.

He actively participated in the second phase of the separate Telangana movement. He regained as an MLA but retained his seats in the by-elections that followed due to his resignation. He was also made a member of the TRS Politburo. He remained an MLA from Banswada from 2014 to 2018. Pocharam served as the agriculture minister in former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's cabinet as the agriculture minister. After his election in 2018, he was made the Speaker of the Telangana Legislative Assembly. Notwithstanding the anti-incumbency against BRS sweeping across Nizamabad district, Pocharam retained his seat again in the 2023 state assembly elections. Recently, he joined the Congress party.