Hyderabad, June 02:
Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrashekhar Rao was on Monday sworn in as the first Chief Minister of Telangana, which became the 29th state of India.
Rao was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor ESL Narasimhan in a simple ceremony at the Raj Bhavan here around 8.47 am.
Eleven ministers have also taken oath in K Chandrasekhar Rao’s Cabinet in the new state of Telangana.
The ministers, who took oath today, include Mahmood Ali, Dr T Rajaiah, Nayani, Etala, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Harish Rao and KT Rama Rao.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated KCR and assured him of full help in taking the newly created state forward.
Ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, the Home Ministry announced this morning that President’s Rule in newly-created Telangana region has been revoked.
The Central rule would, however, continue in the residual AP until TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu takes charge as chief minister, which is likely on June 8.
Before taking oath, the TRS chief paid tributes to the martyrs of Telangana at Gun Park near the Legislative Assembly.
Celebrations began here and all across Telangana on Sunday night to rejoice at the culmination of the decades-old struggle in the region for carving out a separate state from Andhra Pradesh.
TRS, Congress and other political parties as well as pro-Telangana groups planned a number of events in Hyderabad and elsewhere to celebrate the realisation of the decades-long dream.
Telangana supporters gathered at People’s Plaza at the picturesque Hussain Sagar Lake where cultural programmes and a dazzling display of fireworks were among the scheduled events.
The supporters also took out victory rallies and distributed sweets to celebrate the occasion.
Congress leaders, meanwhile, took out a rally here, hailing their party president Sonia Gandhi for making separate statehood for Telangana a reality.
TRS activists and supporters have already painted Hyderabad pink, the colour of TRS flag, by installing huge cut-outs, banners, festoons and balloons hailing their leader.
After taking oath as first chief minister of separate Telangana, Chandrasekhar Rao would attend the official celebration of ‘Telangana Formation Day’ at the sprawling Parade Grounds in Hyderabad.
KCR will chair the first Cabinet meeting where he is expected to sign the first file relating to the logo of the Telangana state.
The journey towards achieving the goal of separate Telangana has been momentous and there have been a number of milestones in the saga.
In 1956, Andhra and the then Hyderabad state were merged to form Andhra Pradesh, the first state to be formed on linguistic basis in the country.
In 1969, an agitation for formation of separate Telangana began and about 300 people were reportedly killed in the agitation.
In a big fillip to the separate Telangana agitation, BJP came out in support of separate statehood demand and it promised “one vote, two states” in the 1998 elections.
A group of Congress MLAs from Telangana submitted a memorandum to party president Sonia Gandhi in 2000 demanding separate statehood to the region.
The separate Telangana agitation got a huge boost in 2001 when the then TDP leader K Chandrasekhar Rao quit the party and launched the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) to fight for separate state.
TDP announced support for separate Telangana demand in 2008 and it joined hands with TRS for the 2009 Lok Sabha and Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly Elections.
The Telangana agitation grew subsequently after chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy died in a chopper crash in September 2009 as he was seen as a formidable opponent of separate Telangana.
The TRS president began a fast-unto-death towards the end of 2009 and the then Union home minister P Chidambaram announced on December 9, 2009, that steps would be taken for formation of separate Telangana.
In the wake of strong protests in Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, the Centre set up a commission, headed by retired Supreme Court judge BN Srikrishna, for more consultations on the issue.