Raghurama Krishna Raju Is New Dy Speaker Of AP

Amaravati: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLA K Raghurama Krishna Raju was Thursday unanimously elected as the Deputy Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.

As only one nomination was received for the post, Speaker Ayyannapatrudu announced Raju’s unanimous election. With this, the posts of both the Speaker and Deputy Speaker have gone to the TDP, which is heading the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

Raju had Wednesday filed his nomination and this was endorsed by both the Jana Sena Party (JSP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Several ministers representing the NDA coalition parties had submitted nomination papers to Assembly Secretary General Suryadevara Prasanna Kumar. The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), which is the only opposition party in the Assembly, is not attending the ongoing session to protest the denial of the Leader of the Opposition status to Jagan Mohan Reddy.

The TDP says both Ayyannapatrudu and Raghurama Krishna Raju were targeted with false cases by the YSRCP during its rule.