New Delhi: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo Chandrababu Naidu was sworn in Wednesday as Andhra Pradesh’s 18th chief minister, following his party’s landslide victory in the assembly as well as Lok Sabha elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a host of top BJP leaders, including Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda, were present at the ceremony of this important alliance partner, whose 16 MPs form a chunk of the central National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The BJP, for the first time since 2014, failed to get a majority on its own this time, coming up 32 short of the magic 272 seats.
After taking oath, Naidu was seen hugging Modi, and was congratulated by other leaders.
Other members of the cabinet also took oath at the event in Vijayawada, held at Kesarpalli IT Park in Gannavaram Mandal on the outskirts of the city.
Naidu has emerged a key player in NDA after successfully leading the TDP-BJP-JanaSena coalition to an emphatic victory in the simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections in the state. The coalition won 164 of the 175 assembly seats and 21 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats.
At the central level, the TDP has got the civil aviation ministry and two ministers of state positions in the communication and rural development departments. Thirty-six-year-old Kinjarappu Rammohan Naidu is the country’s new civil aviation minister.
Naidu was unanimously elected the leader of the NDA in the Andhra Legislative Assembly on Tuesday at a meeting of legislators.
This will be the fourth time that the TDP boss will take charge as Andhra chief minister and the second time after the state’s bifurcation in 2014.
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