HYDERABAD: Thanking all party leaders and members for electing him to the Speaker’s post today, N Kiran Kumar Reddy asserted that he would be unbiased in running the House proceedings. “Till filing of nomination for the Speaker’s post, I am a hardcore Congress party worker. I fulfilled my duty while serving as Government Chief Whip during the last fiveyear period.
There was no personal enmity with any member of the House. Now (after becoming the Speaker), I do not belong to any party and that does not mean I resign from the Congress party. Only time would tell whether I am partial or impartial,’’ he noted. Responding to members’ suggestions in the Assembly here, the new Speaker urged all parties members, including leader of the House YS Rajasekhara Reddy and Opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu, to cooperate with him to run the House in accordance with people’s expectations. He assured to have a debate during the next Budget session to discuss and take views from members on how to resolve issues and the role of Government and Opposition in the Assembly. Besides, a workshop would be convened by inviting people from different sections of the society, including retired Speakers, prominent journalists and other experts, to seek their views on functioning of the House, he added. On this occasion, the Speaker assured that he would strive to give opportunity to all members in the House who included 147 newly elected MLAs. He announced TDP as the main Opposition party and its leader N Chandrababu Naidu as leader of the Opposition. Talking to media personnel later, Kiran Kumar Reddy made it clear that he would change the rules if they were not being implemented to run the House. In fact, a one-day session was planned to look at the lacunae in implementing such rules and in functioning of the House. “We would take all 294 members and one nominated member into confidence to run the House,’’ he added.