In T’gana, no takers for Speaker’s post

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which swept the assembly polls last month, is facing a peculiar situation over the appointment of Speaker. None of the TRS MLAS has shown interest in the post because of a “jinx” attached to it: anybody who sits on the chair faces defeat in the immediate next election, according to a senior party leader familiar with the development.

The first session of the newlyformed Telangana assembly will begin from January 17.

TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekar Rao has sounded a few names for the Speaker’s post but they have expressed their reluctance for the same, the party leader said, requesting anonymity. “A couple of senior MLAS, whose names were doing rounds in the party circles, have met KCR’S son and TRS working president KT Rama Rao. They requested him not to consider their names for the post, even if they don’t get berths in the s t a t e c a bi net l i kel y t o be expanded next week,” the TRS leader said.

“But, the decision of the chief minister is final. If he picks an MLA for the Speaker’s post, no one cannot reject it,” he added.

Senior TRS leader S Madhusudhana Chary, the first Speaker of the Telangana assembly after the creation of the state in 2014, faced humiliating defeat in the December 7 assembly elections from Bhupalpally constituency. He, in fact, stood in the third position securing 53,567 votes, while Congress’s Gandra Venkataramana Reddy won the seat by winning 69,918 votes. TRS rebel candidate G Satyanarayana, who contested as an All India Forward Bloc candidate, came second with 54,283 votes. The sentiment that the Speaker’s post is ominous has been there for the past four decades, right from the days of undivided Andhra Pradesh.

In 1983 assembly elections, veteran Congress leader Agarala Eshwar Reddy, who served as the Speaker earlier, had faced defeat at the hands of Telugu Desam Party founder NT Rama Rao in Tirupati. Subsequent speakers, including G Narayana Rao, P Ramachandra Reddy, Duddilla Sripada Rao, among others also could not win immediate next elections.the TRS leader, quoted above, said the main reason for the Speakers losing in immediate election was they would lose connect with the people after occupying this post.