Senior Telangana Rashtra Samithi MLA and former agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy is all set to become the Speaker of the newly-constituted Telangana state assembly.
Pocharam, a six-time MLA from Banswada in Nizamabad district, will file his nomination papers on Thursday evening and will be formally declared elected as the Speaker in the assembly on Friday.
Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao spoke to leaders of all political parties and requested them to ensure unanimous election of the Speaker.
While all the parties accepted his request, the Congress in its legislature party meeting held on Thursday decided against fielding its candidate for the Speaker’s post, waving way for the unanimous election of Pocharam.
According to TRS sources, KCR had a lengthy talk with Pocharam last night and virtually forced him to accept the Speaker’s post.
He reportedly told Pocharam that there was no better person than him for the post, as he had good oratory skills.
He reportedly assured that the party would promote his son in the party and field him in the next elections.
The former minister was completely off the mood on Wednesday and on Thursday morning also, he met KCR to make a last ditch effort to avoid being nominated for the Speaker’s post. But KCR was firm on his decision.
The names of Padma Devender Reddy, Redya Naik and Eatala Rajender also came up for consideration, but they expressed strong reluctance to accept the Speaker post, even if they do not get the berths in KCR cabinet.