congress party legislator N. Kiran Kumar Reddy is all set to be elected unopposed as the speaker of the new Andhra Pradesh assembly with the main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) deciding not to field its candidate.
Kiran Kumar Reddy will be declared elected Thursday while Nadendla Manohar, also of the Congress party, will be his deputy.
TDP, which voiced strong reservations to the Congress party's choice for speaker, Wednesday withdrew its proposal to contest for the post as the numbers were not in its favour.
Senior TDP legislator and former finance minister Ashok Gajapati Raju had earlier said that he was ready to contest for the speaker's post if the party leadership decided to field him.
Seven sets of nominations have been filed on behalf of Kiran Kumar and the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) of actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi has backed him for the post.
Minister for Finance and Legislative Affairs K. Rosaiah proposed the name of Kiran Kumar for the post while Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and PRP leader Chiranjeevi seconded it.
Chiranjeevi told reporters that his party did not want controversies on issues like election of the assembly speaker.
The Congress party has 155 members in the 294-member assembly while the PRP has 18 legislators.
Meanwhile, the TDP and Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) leaders are meeting to chalk out their strategy on the speaker's election. TRS has already declared that it would oppose Kiran Kumar as he was against the formation of a separate Telangana state.
TDP also voiced its reservations on the Congress party's choice as Kiran Kumar is known to be a bitter critic of TDP leader and former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
The first session of the newly elected assembly, which began Wednesday, will continue till June 12.
Governor Narayan Dutt Tiwari will address the joint session of the assembly and council June 5. The legislature will then debate the motion of thanks to the governor's address.
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