K Chandrasekhar Rao took oath of office on Monday morning as the first chief minister of Telangana, India's 29th state, created at midnight yesterday by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh.
As he was sworn in, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, "India gets a new state! We welcome Telangana as our 29th state...Congrats to K Chandrasekhar Rao Garu on taking oath as Telangana's 1st CM. My best wishes to people for the state's development journey."
He also said, "Centre assures complete support to the people & Government of Telangana in taking the state to newer heights of progress."
Earlier on Monday morning, ESL Narasimhan was sworn in as Governor of both Telangana and the residuary Andhra Pradesh. The two states will share a Governor and Hyderabad as a common capital for 10 years.
Mr Rao or KCR as he is popularly known as, took oath along with 11 ministers, including his son KT Rama Rao and nephew T Harish Rao. Last month his party, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS had won 62 of the 119 seats in the newly formed Telangana Assembly.
Hyderabad and other parts of the new state have been celebrating since midnight, the capital city washed in pink, the colour of the TRS.
After taking oath as the chief minister, KCR hoisted the tricolour and took salute at an impressive parade held at Parade Grounds in Secunderabad. The main official celebrations were attended by his cabinet colleagues, senior officials, and a large number of policemen and people. KCR entered the Telangana state secretariat at noon. C Block, which was occupied by the chief ministers of undivided Andhra Pradesh, will be his office.
The other half of the Secretariat has been allotted to Chandrababu Naidu, who will take over as the chief minister of the residual Andhra Pradesh made up of what is called Seemandhra, later this week.
"Lots of people sacrificed their lives, then and also now, for Telangana. Now the challenge for the new government of KCR is to take everyone along, so they feel they are a party to the development of Telangana," said Laxminarayan Mudiraj, 85, who as Hyderabad mayor defied police orders in 1969 to try and inaugurate a Martyrs' Memorial in honour of over 300 people who had died in police firing during an agitation for Telangana.
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