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Pratibha Bharati is AP's first woman speaker

Shireen in Hyderabad

K Pratibha Bharati is the first woman speaker of the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly. Incidentally, she is also the first dalit to hold the post.

Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu said the new speaker was well conversant with legislative matters as she had served both in the government and the opposition since 1983. He hoped that under her stewardship, the Andhra Pradesh assembly would be an example to other states by setting new conventions and conducting the proceedings in a dignified manner.

He said the Telugu Desam Party always believed in the upliftment of women and recalled that the late N T Rama Rao had introduced eight per cent reservation for women in local bodies. He said that his party had fielded as many as 33 women in the recent assembly elections and 21 of them emerged victorious. For the first time five women were inducted into the ministry and given important portfolios.

Leader of the opposition Dr Y S Rajashekhara Reddy, while felicitating Bharathi, praised her blemishless political career and said nobody had any doubts about her integrity and impartiality. He, however, suggested that she should resign from the TDP and establish a good convention that the speaker should not not belong to any party. Reddy said the Congress always stood for the emancipation of women.

The decks were cleared for her unanimous election as the speaker of the 11th assembly on Wednesday when four sets of nomination papers were filed on her behalf by the ruling TDP and the opposition parties -- the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Majlis-e-Ittehaadul Muslimeen.

Finance and Legislative Affairs Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu and Revenue Minster P Ashok Gajapathi Raju met the Congress legislature party leader Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy and sought his party's support for Bharati's candidature. They also enlisted the support of the other parties.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and floor leaders Y S Rajasekhar Reddy (Congress), N Indrasena Reddy (BJP) and Asaduddin Owaisi (MIM) proposed Bharati's name.

Forty-three year-old Bharati is a fifth-term legislator representing the Etcherla constituency in north coastal Srikakulam district. She was elected to the assembly for the first time in 1983 on a TDP ticket. She was re-elected in subsequent elections in 1985, 1989, 1994 and 1999.

Born into a well-known political family, Bharati joined the TDP in 1982 and had stints as minister in the cabinets of N T Rama Rao and N Chandrababu Naidu. She made her debut in the NTR ministry as a minister of state holding the social welfare, women and child welfare and housing portfolios. In his second stint as chief minister, N T Rama Rao made her a cabinet minister in 1985 and entrusted her with the social welfare and women and child welfare portfolios.

After the TDP regained power in 1994, NTR again inducted her as the minister for women and child welfare. During the August 1995 crisis in the TDP, when N Chandrababu Naidu toppled NTR as chief minister and TDP chief, she sided with NTR for a brief while before switching her loyalty to the Chandrababu-led TDP. She was inducted into the Chandrababu Naidu cabinet in November last year and was entrusted with the higher education portfolio.

After graduating from the RBVR Women's College, Hyderabad, Bharati did her post-graduation in commerce from Nagarjuna University, Guntur. She is the daughter of Justice K Punnaiah, who himself served as MLA for two terms before joining the judicial service and serving as a judge of the Andhra Pradesh high court.

In a brief chat with newsmen on Wednesday evening, Bharati thanked Chandrababu Naidu for reposing confidence in and entrusting her with a key responsibility. She also sought the cooperation of all political parties and the legislators for the smooth conduct of the assembly proceedings.

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