TDP MLA takes charge of deputy speaker of Andhra assembly
The YSR Congress Party, which is the only opposition party in the assembly, stayed away from the election of Kanumuru Raghu Ramakrishna Raju as the deputy speaker
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLA Kanumuru Raghu Ramakrishna Raju on Thursday assumed charge as the deputy speaker of Andhra Pradesh state legislative assembly, after speaker Ch Ayyanna Patrudu declared Raju elected for the post unanimously.
Raju was the only candidate who had filed the nomination for the deputy speaker post on Wednesday. His candidature was endorsed by deputy chief minister K Pawan Kalyan, state IT minister Nara Lokesh and Visakhapatnam (north) MLA P Vishnu Kumar Raju.
Several ministers representing the NDA coalition government in the state submitted nomination papers in support of Raju to state legislature secretary general Suryadevara Prasanna Kumar.
The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), which is the only opposition party in the assembly, stayed away from the election of Raju as the deputy speaker. The party announced boycott of the ongoing session to protest the denial of the leader of the opposition status to party president and former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Raju, who was earlier in the YSRCP between 2019 and 2019, was the party’s Lok Sabha member from Narasapuram parliamentary constituency in West Godavari district. Within a year of being elected, he turned a rebel and began attacking the policies of Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The crime investigation department of the Andhra police filed a sedition case against Raju and arrested him on May 14, 2021, from his residence in Hyderabad. He was booked for speaking against the government and allegedly instigating communal unrest in the state.
Raju had alleged that he was tortured in police custody and claimed that there was an attempt on his life. He was later granted bail by the Supreme Court and since then, he had been accusing Jagan of witch-hunting him.
In February this year, he resigned from the YSRCP and joined the TDP just before the elections. The party fielded him from the Undi constituency in West Godavari district and he won the election held in May.
With the TDP-led NDA government coming to power, Raju lodged a fresh complaint with the police, alleging an attempt on his life during police custody in 2021. In July, Guntur police registered an attempted murder case against Jagan and three Indian Police Service (IPS) officers. The case is still going on.
