Dalit leader Gaddam Prasad Kumar set to be Telangana Assembly speaker

The central leadership of the Congress has chosen Vikarabad MLA Gaddam Prasad Kumar as the new speaker of the Telangana Legislative Assembly, a Deccan Chronicle (DC) report said. Kumar is a Dalit leader and was elected from the Vikarabad (SC) reserved seat in the recently concluded Telangana Assembly polls.

Kumar has earlier served as minister in the previous Congress government between 2012 and 2014. He was first elected as an MLA in 2009, and he lost to BRS in the 2014 and 2018 elections, the report said. However, Kumar defeated BRS MLA Methuku Anand by a margin of 12,893 votes in the recently held elections.

The Congress has decided to make a Dalit leader the speaker of the Telangana Assembly to reiterate its commitment to the empowerment of the weaker sections of the state. Congress has already announced Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, a Dalit leader, as the Deputy Chief Minister of Telangana.

On December 7, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Chief Revanth Reddy took oath as the chief minister of the state. Earlier, the Telangana Congress had left the decision to choose the chief minister to the central leadership of Congress. Congress' National President Mallikarjun Kharge held discussions with senior party leaders and proposed the name of Revanth Reddy for the top post.

The Telangana Assembly elections were held on November 30 for the 119 seats. The results for the same were announced on Sunday, December 3 in which Congress emerged victorious with 64 seats to its name, while the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) was limited to 39 seats. The BJP and AIMIM won eight and seven seats in the Telangana Assembly. The BJP was able to expand its vote share in the state to a significant 14 per cent.