Hyderabad, Dec 9 (IANS): Former Telangana chief minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao was Saturday elected as the leader of BRS Legislature Party. He was unanimously elected as the leader by the newly-elected MLAs of the party at their meeting, held just before the commencement of the first session of the Assembly.

With 39 MLAs in 119-member Assembly, BRS is the main opposition party. KCR, however, was not present in the BRS Legislature Party meeting as he underwent hip replacement surgery on Friday at a hospital in Hyderabad after suffering hip fracture due to a fall at his residence. KCR’s son BRS working president K. T. Rama Rao could not attend the meeting as he was with his father at the hospital.

Two other MLAs were also absent due to personal reasons. BRS Parliamentary Party leader Kesav Rao presided over the meeting attended by 36 MLAs. The meeting passed a resolution unanimously electing KCR as the leader. Before reaching the Assembly, the BRS MLAs led by former minister T. Harish Rao visited Telangana Martyrs’ Memorial at Gun Park and paid their tributes. Meanwhile, KTR tweeted that BRS will continue to be the voice of people under KCR’s leadership.

“Our leader KCR garu is a fighter who fought against all odds to achieve Telangana We will continue to be the strongest voice of people under his leadership in Telangana Legislature,” he posted on ‘X’. In the recently-concluded Assembly elections, Congress wrested power from BRS by winning 64 seats.