TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for the fourth term on Wednesday at a ceremony that was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior BJP leaders and Union Ministers.
Janasena chief and actor Pawan Kalyan, Nara Lokesh, son of Naidu, among others, took oath as Ministers. Andhra Pradesh Governor S Abdul Nazeer administered the oath to Naidu and others. PM Modi hugged and patted Chandrababu Naidu on him assuming office.
Later, the PM held the hands of Telugu megastar Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan and fondly spoke to them and also had a brief conversation with former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, Tamil superstar Rajinikanth and his wife Latha on the dais.
Naidu retained his Kuppam constituency while Pawan Kalyan and Lokesh won from Pithapuram and Mangalagiri assembly segments in the recently held polls. Union Ministers Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari and J P Nadda, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde were present.
Former Vice president M Venkaiah Naidu, Ex Chief Justice of India N V Ramana and Superstars Rajnikanth and Chiranjeevi also took part. The Pawan Kalyan-led party has got three and BJP one berth in the 25-member present cabinet. As per the strength of Andhra Pradesh assembly (175), the cabinet can have 26 ministers, including the CM.
Besides Naidu and Lokesh, TDP legislators K Atchannaidu, P Narayana, Kollu Ravindra, Nimmala Rama Naidu, Anitha Vangalapudi, Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, Kolusu Parthasarathy , NMD Farooq, Payyavula Keshav, A Stya Prasad, Dola Sree Bala Veeranjaneya Swamy, Gottipati Ravi Kumar, Gummidi Sandhya Rani, BC Janardhan Reddy, TG Bharath, S Savitha, Vasamsetty Subhash, Kondapalli Srinivas and Mandipalli Ram Prasad Reddy also took oath.
From Janasena party, Nadendla Manohar and Kandula Durgesh while BJP legislator Satya Kumar Yadav took oath as ministers along with Pawan Kalyan. In separate meetings on Tuesday, the Telugu Desam Legislature Party and NDA partners elected Naidu as their leader.
The NDA comprising TDP, BJP and Janasena won a landslide victory in the recently concluded simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the southern state with a huge majority of 164 out of the total 175 Assembly and 21 out of the total 25 Lok Sabha seats.
