Telangana has most qualified MLAs

Hyderabad: The just-concluded elections show a 37 per cent increase in the number of MLAs with post-graduate and higher qualifications. A large group of the qualified are from the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, given that the party has sent a majority of 88 MLAs to the House. Two of them hold doctoral degrees and 24 are post-graduates. 

There are five engineers, four have an MBBS degree and nine are Law graduates (though not practising). The giant killer who defeated senior Congress leader Jeevan Reddy from Jagtial, M Sanjay Kumar, is a doctor. So is Dr Rajaiah, legislator from Station Ghanpur Assembly constituency.
 
First timer Kaleru Venkatesh who won from Amberpet on the TRS ticket, is a lawyer and so is Balka Suman, the TRS MLA from Chennur-Adilabad. From the Congress party, a majority are LLBs and post-graduates. Kollapur MLA Harshavardhan Reddy is a practising lawyer, while young legislator Rohit Reddy completed his B-Tech from a university in Sweden. 

Among the women MLAs, Anasuya Dansari from Mulug holds an LLB degree. Senior leader Bhatti Vikram-arka Mallu is a PhD in History from HCU, while Podem Veeraiah has a master’s degree in Public Administration, as has Haripriya Naik from Yellandu constituency and former Minister D. Sridhar Babu.

From the AIMIM, the highest qualified legislator is Chandrayan-gutta MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi, who discontinued his MBBS. Both winners from the Telugu Desam are non-graduates.

In the previous Assembly, the number of MLAs with post-graduate degrees was 19; this has gone up to 26 this time. There were three legislators with higher degrees; this time there are five. But there were more graduates in the earlier assembly. There were 60 graduate legislators elected in 2014 and 43 in 2018. 

The number of legislators who passed their 12th has increased from 37 to 45.

“Having qualified legislators will be helpful in policy building. Representatives with a formal education will be able to debate, participate in decision-making and understand issues and the use of technology. They can engage and express themselves better in the House. In the past, many legislators knew the issues, but could not bring it to the table in the Assembly,” said Rakesh Reddy, a political analyst.

Professor Trilocham Sastry of the Association for Democratic Reforms says that while qualification is important, “the mandate to build the constituency should be the focus. In the past, many qualified MLAs failed to complete their mandate.”

The average age of the incoming MLAs has increased by three years. 

The number of young members in the 25-40 age group has decreased by seven, while the number of members in the age group of 56 to 70 years has increased by five.

The youngest is 33-year-old Congress MLA from Yellandu, Haripriya Banoth, followed by Rohit Reddy, Congress legislator from Tandur. From the TRS party, the young pack includes Balka Suman, 35, from Chennur and Gadari Kishore Kumar, 37, from Thungathurthi.

At 73, Congressman Vanama Venkateswara Rao from Kothagudem and TRS man V.M.  Abraham from Alampur are the oldest members of the house. 

Also in her 70s is Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, 70, from the AIMIM party who was elected from the Charminar constituency.