Nadendla Manohar is the NEW speaker

Nadendla Manohar, former national tennis player and two-time legislator from Tenali, was on Saturday elected speaker of the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly.

While, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka was elected his deputy by J C Diwakar Reddy who was appointed pro-tem speaker by the governor.

Manohar, who has been deputy speaker since 2009, polled 158 votes against 90 votes of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) candidate K E Krishnamurthy in the 294-member house.

Although TDP fielded KE Krishna Murty and Suddala Devaiah for both posts, the Congress nominees with the support of the Praja Rajyam and MIM bagged the posts hands down.

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti, YSR Congress, BJP and CPI abstained from voting.

Immediately after the elections for the posts of speaker and deputy speaker, the House was adjourned sine die by Speaker Manohar.

Against the normal practice of unanimous elections to both the posts, election and voting were held in the Assembly for the first time in the 40 years.

TDP leaders on Saturday alleged the House was hastily adjourned in an effort to avert any discussion on a no-trust petition filed by them against the state government.

They said Chief MInister is anticipating a threat from the Congress rebels in the Jaganmohan Reddy camp.

“At least 22 Congress MLAs were in the YSR camp on Friday. Another 12 were on stand by,” said a TDP leader.

Chandrababu Naidu and senior leaders from TDP met Governor ESL Narasimhan immediately after the Assembly was adjourned indefinitely and demanded a special session to tackle the no-confidence issue. Nagam Janarthana Reddy, the suspended TDP legislator from Nagarkurnool, submitted another no-trust petition on the issue of separate statehood for Telangana.

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