Kona Raghupati, a two-time MLA from the ruling YSRCP who is representing Bapatla constituency, was unanimously elected as the Deputy Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.

Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister Botsa Satyanarayana proposed his name, which was backed by other members of the cabinet and senior leaders of the ruling party. As he was the only contestant, Speaker Tammineni Sitaram declared the election of Kona Raghupathi as Deputy Speaker.

Putting aside their politics, Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and Leader of Opposition Chandrababu Naidu escorted Kona till the chair after greeting him.

This was a welcome change as earlier this week, following the election of Tammineni Sitaram as Speaker of the Assembly, the YSRCP and TDP had sparred and Jagan and Naidu took potshots at each other, raising questions over "house decorum".

Raghupathi, who hails from political family, holds a Bachelors degree. His father, Kona Prabhakara Rao, was a veteran Congress leader who even served as the Speaker for the Assembly of united Andhra Pradesh, for a brief period between 1980 and 1981. Prabhakara Rao also acted as Governor for three states, Pudducherry, Sikkim and Maharshatra, serving a brief period in each state between 1983 and 1986.

Tuesday was the last day of the first Assembly session after the YSRCP swept into power last month. The House saw a resolution seeking accordance of Special Category Status (SCS) from the Centre for the state. 

We are not allies of BJP, claims YSRCP

As the debate took place to pass the resolution for SCS, Jana Sena Party's lone MLA Rapaka Vara Prasad's statements drew flak from the YSRCP. 

Rapaka stated that YSRCP should convince the BJP government for accordance of SCS to the state as it had a friendly relationship with it.

The YSRCP MLAs objected to the statement and said that this was not the case and claimed that they were not allies of the BJP. Following this, the Jana Sena MLA withdrew his statement.