5 lakh cheers for Naidu

Naidu signs 5 files after oath

• The first file was that of farm loan waiver
• Old age pension raised to Rs 1,000
• 20 litres of mineral water at Rs 2 for poor
• Closing down of belt shops
• Raising of retirement age from 58 to 60

Nagarjunanagar (Guntur): About 5 lakh people, hundreds of bureaucrats, VIPs, industrialists, film actors, five Chief Ministers, Six Union Ministers and several representatives of State governments. Even Gods must have been jealous as Chandrababu Naidu took the oath as the first Chief Minister of new Andhra Pradesh at a memorable ceremony held on Sunday evening.

Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu, who led his party to a thumping victory in the Assembly elections, took oath as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh along with his team of 19 ministers at a grand function on Sunday evening.

Governor E S L Narasimhan administered the oath of office and secrecy to Chandrababu Naidu at 7:27 pm, the time that was decided by astrologers.

He took the oath of office in the presence of galaxy of Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, including BJP leaders L K Advani and Rajnath Singh and around five lakh audiences at the venue, Nagarjuna Nagar, 18 kms from Guntur.

Naidu took oath in the name of God in Telugu amidst thunderous cheers by party workers.Naidu seems to have done a detailed exercise to see that all communities were represented in the cabinet. The council of ministers has six BCs, four Kammas, four Kapus, three Reddys, two SCs and one Vysya.

However, senior leader Kodela Sivaprasad has not been able to find a berth in Naidu’s government. Similarly there is no representation to ST and minorities in the first list. Similarly six-time MLA Gouthu Shyamsundar Shivaji and Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary have also not been accommodated. Prior to taking oath, Naidu paid obeisance to the statue of Telugu Talli on the dais.

BJP senior leaders L K Advani and Muralai Manohar Joshi, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, M Venkaiah Naidu, Ananth Kumar, Kalraj Mishra, Prakash Javadekar and Nirmala Sitharaman attended the function. Chief Ministers -- Parkash Singh Badal of Punjab, Manohar Parrikar of Goa, Vasundhara Raje of Rajasthan, Raman Singh of Chhattisgarh, T R Zeling of Nagaland -- were also present. Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha P J Kurien and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal were present. The family members of Chandrababu Naidu and late N T Rama Rao were also present at the swearing-in ceremony. They were brought to the venue in four buses from Nimmmakuru, the native village of the party founder late NTR. The ground was packed to its capacity with the invitees and the party workers present bearing the hot sun to witness the historic event as the party had returned to power in the State after a gap of 10 years.

Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi and Telugu film stars Pawan Kalyan, NTR Junior and Kalyan Ram also attended the ceremony. Art of Living guru Sri Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, badminton star Pullela Gopichand, top industrialists like G Mallikarjuna Rao of GMR Group and a host of other VIPs attended the ceremony. Chandrababu's wife Bhuvaneswari, son Lokesh, daughter-in-law Brahmani and other relatives were also present. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa extended her greetings to Telugu Desam Party leader, Chandrababu Naidu on becoming the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

In her letter to Naidu, Jayalalithaa thanked him for the invitation to the swearing-in ceremony and cited pressing circumstances for her absence but deputed two ministers from her Cabinet on her behalf.

"I convey my congratulations and best wishes to you for a very successful tenure as Chief Minister. I am sure that under your stewardship the state of Andhra Pradesh will reach new heights of prosperity and development," she said.

Minister for Housing and Urban Development R Vaithilingam and Minister for Transport V Senthil Balaji would represent the Chief Minister in the swearing-in ceremony, she added.

The list of Ministers

1. K E Krishnamurty who is tipped to be the Deputy CM and Home Minister
2. N China Rajappa who is also likely to be Dy CM under Kapu quota
3. Y Ramakrishnudu who may be made Finance Minister l Ch Ayyana Patrudu l Bojjala Gopalakrishna Reddy
4. D Umamaheswara Rao
5. P Narayana, Paritala Sunitha l P Pulla Rao
6. Dr Kamineni Srinivas
7. Ganta Srinivasa Rao
8. Palle Raghunath Reddy
9. Pithala Sujata
10. Atchanaidu
11. Sidda Raghava Rao
12. Kimidi Mrinalini
13. Kolla Ravindra Babu
14. Ravula Kishore Babu
15. Manikyala Rao