Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Chandrababu Naidu was on Wednesday sworn in as the 18th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh at a ceremony held at Kesarpalli IT Park in Gannavaram Mandal in suburban Vijayawada. Jana Sena state minister and actor Pawan Kalyan was sworn in as deputy chief minister.
The swearing-in ceremony was attended by top BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers, Amit Shah, and JP Nadda. Along with Naidu, the 24-member board also took the oath of office. The TDP-BJP-Janasena National Democratic Alliance led by Naidu won a landslide victory in both the Assembly and Assembly elections.
Naidu was unanimously elected as the NDA leader at a meeting of legislators from TDP, Janasena Party, and BJP in the Andhra Legislative Assembly on Tuesday. Later, Andhra Governor S Abdul Nazeer invited Naidu to form the government.
This is Naidu’s fourth term as chief minister of Andhra Pradesh and the second since the bifurcation of the state in 2014. In the 175-member Andhra Pradesh assembly, the TDP has a majority with 135 MLAs, while its allies the Janasena Party and the BJP have 21 and eight legislators. The opposition YSR Congress Party has 11 MLAs.
The cabinet consists of 21 MLAs from TDP, three from the Janasena Party, and one from BJP. TDP MLAs who took oath include Nara Lokesh, Kinjarapu Atchannaidu, Nimmala Ramanaidu, NMD Farooq, Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, and others.
Konidela Pawan Kalyan, Nadendla Manohar, and Kandula Durgesh represent the Janasena party while Satya Kumar Yadav is the only BJP MLA who took ministerial oath in Naidu’s cabinet. Along with Pawan Kalyan, 23 others were sworn in as ministers, including Chandrababu Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh.
The Jana Sena got three cabinet seats, while Satya Kumar Yadav was the only BJP leader in the Andhra Pradesh cabinet. In the 175-member assembly, the government can include 26 ministers, including the prime minister.
Naidu’s political career as chief minister began in 1995, before the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, and he led the state for nine consecutive years until 2004. He returned as the Chief Minister of a bifurcated Andhra Pradesh in 2014 and served until 2019. when the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress came to power with 151 out of 175 seats.