YSR, Patnaik to Take Oath as CM
Congress leader YS Rajasekhara Reddy is all set to take oath as Andhra Pradesh chief minister on Wednesday evening for the second consecutive term. While Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief Naveen Patnaik will take oath on Thursday as Orissa chief minister for the third term in a row.
In the morning, a delegation of Congress party leaders called on Governor ND Tiwari to inform him of Reddy’s election as leader of the party’s newly-elected legislators.
Rajasekhara Reddy, popularly known as YSR, who has entered the record books as not just the first chief minister of the Congress party to retain power in nearly three decades but also the only one to have completed a full term in the state, will take oath at a public function to be held at Lal Bahadur Stadium in the heart of the city.
The governor will administer the oath of office and secrecy to him at 6.30 pm before an estimated gathering of 15,000 people that will include Congress supporters from his native Kadapa district.
In the mean time, Orissa Governor MC Bhadare invited Patnaik to form the government after he was formally elected leader of the BJD legislature party on Tuesday.
After meeting the governor, Patnaik told media persons that the swearing-in ceremony would take place at 11.30 am on Thursday.
The BJD won 103 out of 147 seats in the state assembly and 14 out of 21 Lok Sabha seats in Orissa in the recently concluded polls.
The sweeping victory came as a surprise particularly after Patnaik split from his 11-year-old political ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), over seat sharing. The BJD-BJP combine, which broke a month ahead of the elections, had ruled the state for two consecutive terms.
