HYDERABAD: Nadendla Manohar of the ruling Congress party was Tuesday unanimously elected as deputy speaker of Andhra Pradesh state legislative assembly.
Manohar, son of former chief minister Nadendla Bhaskar Rao, represents Tenali constituency in Guntur district.
Manohar, a two-time legislator, was among the panel speakers in the last assembly and was also chairman of the assembly library committee. He is an economics graduate and did his MBA in marketing.
Since he was the only one to file nomination for the post, the speaker announced his election unopposed.
Unlike the election of speaker Kiran Kumar Reddy, the entire opposition backed Manohar as the deputy speaker.
Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and leaders of opposition parties escorted Manohar to the chair. Leaders of the main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) also joined them.
Breaking the convention, TDP and TRS leaders had stayed away from escorting Kiran Kumar to the chair when he was elected unopposed as the speaker on June 4. TDP had taken exception to the manner in which Congress party nominated him without consulting the opposition parties.