Hyderabad, January 17: For the first time, Andhra Pradesh will have a Telangana lawyer as its Advocate General. A Sudarshan Reddy is likely to be appointed to this post in a day or two. To facilitate this, incumbent DV Sitarama Murthy has resigned. Along with him, three additional AGs – Sudarshan Reddy, A Satya Prasad and P Haranath Gupta too have put in their papers following a direction to this effect from Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy.
The Chief Minister is keen on having a Telangana advocate as the AG since even Justice Srikrishna Committee, in its report, has noted the fact that no Telangana lawyer has ever held the position since the formation of the State in 1956.
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has been accusing the State government of favouring only Andhra advocates and wanted a Telangana man to be appointed AG this time.
Though P Nirup Reddy’s name too figured in the race for the AG’s post, his candidature has been set aside since he fought on a BJP ticket unsuccessfully against Vijayashanthi for the Medak Lok Sabha seat.
Among the Telangana advocates, the Chief Minister is understood to be preferring Sudharshan Reddy, who hails from Mahaboobnagar district, for two reasons.
Firstly, he is a non-controversial advocate and secondly, the Chief Minister has a good rapport with him. In fact, both were at one time college mates. Another factor that weighed in his favour was his role in ending the Telangana lawyers’ agitation for 42 per cent quota in judicial postings which rocked the High Court in September last year.
–Agencies