Kiran Kumar Reddy is Andhra assembly Speaker

The "jinxed" chair of Speaker, Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly will be occupied by Kiran Kumar Reddy, a vocal Congress leader known for his opposition baiting.

The path of his unanimous election to the post was paved today with opposition not fielding any candidate against him. As the nominations for the post closed on Wednesday evening, seven sets of nominations were filed, all of them in support of Kiran Kumar Reddy, who hails from Chittoor district.

One set was filed by the minister for legislative affairs K Roshaiah and was supported by the Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy and the Praja Rajyam president Chiranjeevi. The Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Musilameen and the Bharatiya Janata Party had also announced their support for Kiran Kumar Reddy.

But the main opposition Telugu Desam questioned Kiran Kumar Reddy's choice for the post of Speaker recalling his past record of opposition baiting, especially the TDP.

At one stage the TDP toyed with the idea of fielding P Ashok Gajapati Raju against Kiran Kumar Reddy but dropped the idea later. Instead the party has demanded that the post of the deputy speaker should be left to the opposition. But the Congress has already announced that another young Congressman Nandendla Manohar as its candidate for that post. Manohar is the son of former chief minister N Bhaskara Rao.

The Congress party has defended the choice of Kiran Kumar Reddy as the prerogative of the ruling party. The choice seems to have been dictated by the fact that the Congress will have to face a more strong and aggressive opposition this time as the TDP has almost doubled its strength to 92 while Congress has 155 members only.

Supporting Kiran Kumar Reddy for the Speaker's post film star turned politician Chiranjeevi said that the people had given verdict in favor of Congress party and it had every right to have the Speaker of its choice.

Jayprakash Narayan, former civil-servant turned politician, and the president of Lok Satta urged that those elected to the posts of speaker and the deputy speaker should resign from their parties. He also wanted the post of the deputy speaker to be left to the opposition.

Kiran Kumar Reddy, a three time MLA, was elected from Pileru assembly constituency in Chittoor district. He had more recently asked the leader of opposition N Chandrababu Naidu to keep his promise and quit politics as he had promised to do in case of TDP losing the elections.

Interestingly the post of the Speaker in Andhra Pradesh is seen as jinxed as most of the occupants of the post were defeated in the subsequent elections. This time also former Speaker R Suresh Reddy was defeated in the elections. The earlier occupants of the post who lost the next polls include Narayan Rao, P Ramachandra Reddy, D Sripada Rao and Pratibha Bharati. Only Yanamala Ramakrishnudu of TDP had bucked this trend.

Image: Kiran Kumar Reddy

Photograph: Snaps India