Chintakayala Ayyannapatrudu Becomes Speaker of Andhra Pradesh Assembly

Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh) [India], June 22: Chintakayala Ayyannapatrudu, a senior member of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), was elected as the Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Saturday. He filed his nomination on Friday with the Secretary General of the Assembly, PPK Ramacharyulu. Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, state minister Nara Lokesh, and others supported Ayyannapatrudu.

Ayyannapatrudu was elected unanimously, with all three nominations submitted in his favor. On Friday, newly elected MLAs took their oaths during the inaugural session of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, with TDP MLA G Butchaiah Chowdary acting as the pro-tem speaker.

Chandrababu Naidu was sworn in as the 18th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). This marks Naidu’s fourth term as Chief Minister and his second term since the state’s bifurcation in 2014. Naidu first became Chief Minister in 1995 and led the state until 2004. He returned as Chief Minister of the bifurcated Andhra Pradesh in 2014 and served until 2019.

The TDP-BJP-Janasena alliance, led by Naidu, achieved a landslide victory in both the Assembly and parliamentary elections. The TDP holds a majority in the 175-member assembly with 135 MLAs, while its allies, the Janasena Party, have 21 and the BJP has eight. The opposition YSR Congress Party has only 11 seats.