Congress's Prasad Kumar to be first dalit speaker of Telangana

HYDERABAD: Senior Congress functionary Gaddam Prasad Kumar is all set to be the first dalit speaker of the Telangana legislative assembly. He will be elected unopposed as no other nomination was filed on Wednesday when the time for the exercise came to an end. Protem speaker Akbaruddin Owaisi will announce his election as speaker in the assembly on Thursday.
Principal opposition the BRS, its ally the AIMIM and the Congress' alliance partner the CPI backed Prasad Kumar's nomination, making it an almost unanimous election.BJP legislators, who have not taken oath, did not come for his nomination filing.
Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy along with a couple of ministers, BRS working president and MLA K T Rama Rao, AIMIM legislators Mir Zulfiqar Ali and Majid Hussain, and CPI MLA Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao proposed the name of the Vikarabad MLA.
Prasad Kumar, who had earlier served as a minister in the Congress government in united Andhra Pradesh, will be the third speaker of Telangana assembly. He was preceded by S Madhusudhana Chary (BC), who occupied the chair in the first Telangana assembly (2014-2019), and Pocharam Srinivas Reddy in the second assembly (2019-2023).
The last time an MLA from the SC community had occupied the Speaker's chair was almost 20 years ago in united Andhra Pradesh - K Pratibha Bharathi from 1999 to 2004.
A speaker from the dalit community follows the Congress' decision to appoint dalit leaders Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu as deputy chief minister and Damodar Rajanarasimha as the health minister. Even AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge comes from the SC community.
Congress MLA from Parkal Revuri Prakash Reddy is being tipped to be the frontrunner for the deputy speaker post.