Speaker Election Sparks Political Heat; Congress Aims for Unanimous Election

HYDERABAD: Election for the Telangana Legislative Assembly Speaker will be held, if necessary, at 10.30 am on Thursday, according to a notification issued by the Legislature Secretariat on Monday.

The Congress, clearly ahead in numbers, has announced Vikarabad MLA and former minister Gaddam Prasad Kumar as its candidate for the office.
It has been a tradition to elect a member from the ruling party as Speaker unanimously either in combined Andhra Pradesh or in Telangana state. In 2014, BRS MLA S. Madhusudhana Chary and in 2019 BRS MLA Pocharam Srinivas Reddy were elected Speaker unopposed.

Although the Congress has clear majority of 64 MLAs plus one CPI legislator to win the election, there is no clarity on the stand the main opposition BRS, which has 39 MLAs, would take. The BJP has a strength of eight MLAs and the AIMIM seven.

The BRS is still undecided on whether to field its candidate for the election or follow the convention of electing Speaker proposed by the Congress.
It is also not clear if the BJP will attend the election with Owaisi in the chair. The party's eight MLAs-elect had refused to take oath with Owaisi administering it.
Usually, the ruling party reaches out to the Opposition to seek their support for the unanimous election of Speaker. But the Congress is yet to meet leaders of opposition parties in this regard.

Nominations will be accepted on Wednesday from 10.30 am to 5 pm. The nominations can be submitted to the State Legislature Secretary in person either by the proposer or the candidate nominated. A member cannot propose his own name or propose more than one name.

The nomination paper would contain the name of the member nominated and would have to be signed by the proposer. The election would take place at a meeting of the Assembly.

The person presiding the meeting —pro-tem Speaker Akbaruddin Owaisi in this case — would announce the names of the member, or members if the case may be, who have been duly nominated together with those of their proposers. If only one member has been nominated, he or she would be declared elected unopposed.

In case if more than one member has been nominated, the Assembly would proceed to elect the Speaker by ballot. A member
nominated can withdraw his candidature any time before the ballot commences.