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Updated: May 18, 2020 21:39 IST

Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy took oath as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday. The YSR Congress party boss was sworn-in at the packed Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium in Vijayawada.

The YSRCP had stormed to power in Andhra Pradesh winning 151 seats in the 175-member Assembly.

Jagan Reddy’s mother Vijayalakshmi, his wife Bharati, sister Sharmila and daughters Harsha Reddy and Varsha Reddy were among the 20,000 people who attended the swearing-in.

Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, DMK chief M K Stalin and Pondicherry minister Malladi Krishna Rao also attended the ceremony. Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu had turned down Jagan’s invite and sent a delegation of party leaders to Jagan’s residence with a congratulatory message.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi congratulated Jagan Mohan Reddy on Twitter.

Congratulations to Jagan Reddyji on being sworn in as the CM of Andhra Pradesh.



My best wishes to him, his new team of ministers and to all the people of the state. — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 30, 2019

On the eve of taking oath as Andhra CM, Jagan Reddy had visited various places of worship. He offered prayers at Tirupati temple and later visited Amin Peer dargah in Kadapa district and offered a ‘chadar’. He also paid obeisance at the grave of his father and former Andhra Pradesh CM YS Rajashekhar Reddy in his home town of Idupulapaya in Kadapa disrtrict.

Jagan Reddy took a leaf out of his father’s book to defeat Chandrababu Naidu. He went on a 3,640 km long padayatra (foot march) across Andhra over the last 14 months to take his fight against Naidu’s TDP to the people.

In 2003, ahead of assembly polls, then Congress leader YS Rajashekara Reddy (popularly called YSR) went on a statewide march across undivided Andhra Pradesh to eventually succeed in unseating Chandrababu Naidu from power.