The swearing-in ceremony of N Chandrababu Naidu as the first Chief Minister of the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh turned out to be a mega affair.
The 65-year-old Naidu, along with his 19 Cabinet colleagues, was sworn-in on Sunday evening at a public ceremony held near Acharya Nagarjuna University at Numbur near here. Governor ESL Narasimhan administered the oath of office to the Chief Minister and other ministers.
The Cabinet includes two members from the BJP, an ally of the TDP, and three women.
Apart from a massive crowd, a galaxy of industrialists, central ministers, chief ministers, BJP leaders, including its President Rajnath Singh and LK Advani and film stars such as Pavan Kalyan, were present on the occasion.
For Naidu, who had served for close to nine years from 1995 to 2004 as Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh, it was a home coming to power as he had spent the last 10 years as the Leader of the Opposition.
He would now be heading the administration of a new State with an old name with 13 districts.
Later, Naidu signed five files for appointing a panel on the main electoral promise of loan waiver, pension for the elderly, widows and physically-challenged, drinking water supply, abolition of belt shops and increase of retirement age from 58 to 60 years. The Government would work towards building the new capital fast and adopt decentralised development model, he added.