Hyderabad: “Anumula Revanth Reddy ane nenu... (I, Anumula Revanth Reddy).” With these words, that was greeted with a thunderous roar from the packed LB Stadium venue, TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy took oath as the first Congress Chief Minister of Telangana state after leading the party to a historic victory in the recent Assembly elections.
Present at the event were top Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, apart from senior leaders and Chief Ministers of the party from other states. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan administered the oath of office and secrecy.
Revanth Reddy took oath at 1.20 pm as the second Chief Minister of Telangana state. This was followed by the swearing-in of 11 ministers, including Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka as Deputy Chief Minister to generous applause.
The ministers who took oath were N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, C. Damodar Rajanarasimha, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, Duddilla Sridhar Babu, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Ponnam Prabhakar, Konda Surekha, D. Anasuya alias Seethakka, Tummala Nageswara Rao and Jupally Krishna Rao.
The oath-taking by Mallu Bhatti, Uttam Kumar Reddy, Venkat Reddy and Srinivas Reddy received huge applause from the people, and the loudest cheers, after Revanth Reddy, was reserved for Seethakka.
The upper limit of the Telangana state Cabinet is 18 including the Chief Minister, and the other six berths will be filled at a later stage.
The Chief Minister did not allocate portfolios to the new ministers. Congress sources said that the CM will allocate portfolios after his visit to Delhi in a day or two where he will decide the portfolios in consultation with the party high command. Several lists were doing the rounds on social media platforms allocating portfolios to ministers. Party sources dubbed these lists as fakes.
Earlier, Revanth Reddy along with Sonia Gandhi arrived at the LB Stadium at 1.04 pm and made their way to the dais in an open top vehicle, to a tumultuous welcome. Sonia Gandhi greeted Congress MLAs, Revanth Reddy’s wife, daughter, grandson and son-in-law. This was immediately followed by the entry of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi who waved enthusiastically to the crowd all the way onto the dais.
Revanth Reddy then made his way to the entrance of the stadium to invite Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan. The Governor had to stop for a while to administer the oath as the crowd greeted her with a loud applause.
While all the ministers including the Chief Minister took oath in Telugu, Damodar Rajanarasimha took the oath in English. Similarly, all the ministers including the Chief Minister took the oath in the name of God while Seethakka and Srinivas Reddy took oath in the name of ‘pavitra hrudayam’ (sacred heart).
Prominent personalities who attended the event included Chief Ministers Siddaramaiah (Karnataka) and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh), Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and AICC general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal.
The event began on a colourful note with cultural programmes. Folk songs and dance performances by cultural artistes praising the sacrifices made by Gandhi family especially former prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi for the unity and integrity of the country were well received by the audience.
