Govt Appoints Five Whips for Legislative Assembly & Council

Hyderabad: The government appointed five new Whips for the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council, following approval accorded by Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla.

According to a GO issued on Thursday, the appointees were Ch Vijaya Ramana Rao (Peddapalli), Yennam Srinivas Reddy (Mahbubnagar) and Vemula Veeresham (Nakirekal) for the Assembly and Addanki Dayakar and Balmoor Venkat for the Legislative Council,

The latest appointments are believed to be part of the government’s effort to balance regional and caste representation within the state administration. This also follows intense lobbying from a few of these legislators, in view of three vacancies remaining in the State Cabinet.

Vemula Veeresham represents the SC (Madiga) community and has previously been with the CPI-ML (Janashakti) and later the BRS. It is believed that his appointment from the Nakrekal constituency strengthens the representation of marginalised communities.

Yennam Srinivas Reddy from the Reddy community, who was formerly with the BJP, is said to help maintain traditional community representation from the composite Mahbubnagar district.

Vijaya Ramana Rao, a prominent leader from the Velama community in the Peddapalli district, was formerly a TD leader. His inclusion targets the support of BCs in northern Telangana.

In the Legislative Council, Addanki Dayakar represents the SC (Mala) community and Dr Venkat is from the Velama community. Former minister Patnam Mahender Reddy is presently serving as Government Chief Whip for the Legislative Council. The government is expected to announce one of the senior Whips in the Assembly as the Chief Whip soon.

The appointment of Mahender Reddy has been heavily criticised by the Opposition in the past. BRS leader T. Harish Rao has termed the appointment ‘unconstitutional’. He argued that Mahender Reddy is technically a BRS MLC, and appointing an opposition member as a government whip violates parliamentary norms.