Vijayawada

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president Nara Chandrababu Naidu turned emotional after taking oath as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh here on Wednesday.

Naidu hugged Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon after being sworn in by Governor S. Abdul Nazeer in the presence of a galaxy of political leaders and celebrities at a ceremony attended by lakhs of people.

Amid loud cheers from the audience, the 74-year-old took the oath of office and secrecy in Telugu. The Prime Minister presented him with a bouquet to congratulate him.

Naidu was visibly emotional as he hugged PM Modi and returned to his chair next to his wife Bhuvaneswari.

In 2021, Naidu walked out of the Assembly after his wife was allegedly insulted by some MLAs of the YSR Congress Party and vowed to return only after taking oath as the Chief Minister.

After taking oath as a minister, Jana Sena leader Pawan Kalyan went up to his elder brother megastar Chiranjeevi and touched his feet.

Chandrababu Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh was the next to take oath as the minister. Lokesh, the TDP general secretary, took the blessings of his father, Prime Minister Modi and the Governor.

A total of 24 ministers of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) took oath at the ceremony held at Kesarapalli IT Park near Gannavaram Airport.

The ministers include three from Jana Sena and one from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

TDP’s Andhra Pradesh unit president K. Atchannaidu and Jana Sena political affairs committee chairman Nadendla Manohar were among the key ministers.

The other members of Naidu’s ministerial team are Kollu Ravindra, P. Narayana, Vangalapudi Anitha, Satya Kumar Yadav, Nimmala Rama Naidu, N.M.D. Farooq, Anam Ramanarayan Reddy, Payyavula Kesav, Anagani Satya Prasad, Kolusu Parthsaradhi, Dola Balaveeranjaneya Swamy, Gottipati Ravi Kumar, Kandula Durgesh, Gummadi Sandhyarani, B.C. Jardhan Reddy, T.G. Bharath, S. Savitha, Vasamsetti Subhash, Kondapalli Srinivas and Mandipalli Ram Prasad Reddy.

Former Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, former Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, Union Ministers Amit Shah, J.P. Nadda, Nitin Gadkari, Ram Mohan Naidu, Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar, Chirag Paswan, Kishan Reddy, Ramdas Athawale, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, state BJP president D. Purandeswari were present.

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Superstars Rajinikanth, Chiranjeevi, popular actor and TDP MLA N. Balakrishna were among those present on the dais.