Senior Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLA Pocharam Srinivas is all set to be elected as the Speaker to the state’s Legislative Assembly after he filed his nomination for the post. His candidature was proposed by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and leaders of all parties including the Congress, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), and the BJP supported it too, thereby ensuring that he will be elected unanimously on Friday.
Even ahead of KCR announcing who the Speaker would be, Srinivas’ name was doing the rounds. Srinivas was seen accompanying KCR in his car as they made their way to pay tributes at the Telangana Martyrs’ memorial in front of the Assembly building before the first session, triggering further speculation.
Born February 10, 1949, Srinivas entered politics in 1976. The senior leader had joined the TRS in 2011. He was first elected as a legislator in 1994 on a TDP ticket from Banswada constituency, the same seat that he won in the Assembly elections held recently in the state.
In 1998, he was made the state Housing Minister and in 1999, after winning from Banswada again, he was made the Minister for Mines and Geology. He also served as a Panchayat Raj Minister in 2000. In 2011, at the peak of the Telangana agitation for separate statehood, he quit his MLA post and joined the TRS. He was re-elected in the bye-polls that were held the same year.
In 2014, when the TRS came to power after the bifurcation, he was made the state’s Agriculture Minister.
The first session of the newly-elected Telangana Assembly began on Thursday with the legislators taking the oath. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was the first to take oath as MLA as the session was chaired by pro-tem Speaker Mumtaz Ahmed Khan of the AIMIM.
Governor ESL Narasimhan will address the House on January 19. The next day the House will introduce the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address and adopt the same.
KCR, who led the TRS to a landslide victory, took oath as the Chief Minister for a second term on December 13. Mohammad Mahmood Ali, a member of the Legislative Council, was the only minister to take oath along with the TRS chief. KCR is likely to expand his Cabinet later in January. TRS had bagged 88 seats in the 119-member Assembly in the elections. #KhabarLive
