Mahmood Ali takes oath as Telagana's deputy chief minister

KCR takes oath as Telangana CM, returns for second straight term

HYDERABAD: Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao was sworn in as the chief minister of Telangana at an oath-taking ceremony at the Raj Bhavan on Thursday. Governor E S L Narasimhan administered the oath of office and secrecy at 1.25pm. Along with KCR , Mahmood Ali was also sworn in as minister-designate. This will be KCR’s second term as CM.The 64-year-old TRS party president first became chief minister of Telangana after the party won a majority in the 2014 elections. After the bifurcation of the state, he took oath for the first time as CM on June 2, 2014. He began his second innings as chief minister by taking over the reins of power in the state on Thursday. KCR’s full-fledged cabinet is likely to be in place in a week or so, as he announced earlier.Opposition leaders were conspicuous by their absence at the swearing in ceremony. They had not attended the ceremony even on the earlier occasion. This time, Congress MLC P Sudhakar Reddy, and MIM leader and Hyderabad MP attended the ceremony. “It is a matter of protocol. One has to respect this. That is why I am here,” P Sudhakar Reddy told TOI. In the elections, the results of which were declared on December 11, the TRS bagged 88 seats out of 119 seats.In the previous government, Mahmood Ali who is an MLC was deputy chief minister.After KCR took oath, he stopped forward and on the dais and greeted the gathering with an 'namasthe'. As soon as Mahmood Ali finished taking oath, he indicated to him that he should also greet the gathering and he did.Chandrasekhar Rao’s family members were in full attendance at the ceremony sitting in the designated front seats for them. Seating arrangements were made for MLAs and MPs too but seemed insufficient as they tried to somehow fit into the sofas making space to sit. K T Rama Rao, T Harish Rao, Kavitha Kalvakuntla, J Santosh Kumar, attended the ceremony with their families. KCR’s sisters and their families were present.It may be recalled that when KCR took oath of office on June 2, 2014, nine ministers also took oath along with him.Senior police officials, including Director-General of Police M Mahendar Reddy, city police commissioner Anjani Kumar, Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat, Cyberabad police commissioner V C Sajjanar, chief secretary S K Joshi and senior IAS and IPS officers attended the ceremony.After KCR took oath, TRS leaders and supporters shouted, ‘Jai Telangana’ and ‘Jai KCR’ slogans. However, after a while, Chandrasekhar Rao signalled to them to stop raising the slogans. KCR and his family joined for high tea with the Governor and invitees after the ceremony.