T Padma Rao Goud Deputy Speaker Of Telangana Legislative Assembly

Hyderabad: Senior Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader and former minister, T Padma Rao Goud has been elected unopposed as the Deputy Speaker of the newly-elected Telangana Legislative  Assembly on Monday.  The Speaker of the Telangana Legislative Assembly Pocharam SrinivasReddy annouced the same in the Assembly when the house opened for the day.

Padma Rao's name was recommended by the TRS working president KT Rama Rao and took the responsibility of securing a unanimous election after holding consultations with all parties including the main Opposition, Congress.

He was elected unanimously as the Opposition political quarters such as Congress, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who had already announced their support for him by not fielding their own candidates.

Padma Devender Goud, who  was  the Deputy Speaker in the previous Assembly, had earlier refused to take either Speaker or the Deputy Speaker post leading to the Chief Minister selecting  Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and T Padma Rao Goud for the post of Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively.

Padma Rao is a close aide of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and was elected as an MLA thrice from the Secunderabad Assembly constituency. He was also one of the founder-members of the TRS floated by KCR in 2001 and fought for a separate state. He was Excise and Prohibition minister in KCR's previous regime.

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