HYDERABAD : YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has taken oath as the second chief minister of Andhra Pradesh post its bifurcation. Reddy who led his party to an astounding victory in Andhra Pradesh, took as the Chief Minister of the state. Only Reddy took oath Thursday and his council of ministers is expected to be sworn in on June 7.Jagan Reddy, 46, was administered the oath by Governor ESL Narasimhan at  a grand public function at the IGMC Stadium in Vijayawada. He got a hero’s welcome as he reached the venue in in open jeep, with people cheering as his convoy passed.

The YSR Congress bagged 151 of the 175 seats in the state Assembly, decimating the TDP headed by N Chandrababu Naidu, who became the first chief minister of the state after it was bifurcated to carve out Telangana five years ago. YSRC also won 22 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, DMK chief M K Stalin and Puducherry Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao were the special guests. Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mahmood Ali, Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivasa Reddy, minister Talasani Srinivasa Yadav also attended the swearing-in ceremony.

Reddy’s mother and YSRC honorary president Y S Vijayamma, his wife Bharati and sister Sharmila and other members of the family were specially seated on the dais. Reddy reached the stadium and went round the galleries in an open-top jeep to greet thousands of people who came to witness the event.
For the first time, special arrangements were made at the Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi for live streaming of the swearing-in ceremony. He is also likely to make some key announcements for the people of the state, mainly related to the YSRCs Navaratnalu, the nine major electoral promises, party sources said.
On the eve of his swearing-in, the YSRC chief visited the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala Wednesday morning and offered prayers. He then went to Kadapa town and offered prayers at the famous Amin Peer (Pedda) Dargah and presented a chadar. His family members later took part in the prayer service at the CSI Church in his hometown Pulivendula.
He drove down to the YS family estate in Idupulapaya and paid obeisance at the grave of his late father and former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. On his return to Vijayawada, he went to Indrakeeladri and worshipped Goddess Kanaka Durga, the presiding deity of the city.
Elaborate security arrangements, with about 5,000 police personnel in deployment, were made in Vijayawada city for the swearing-in ceremony, according to the Commissioner of Police Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao.
PM Narendra Modi was also invited by Jagan when the two met last Sunday, but the PM couldn’t make it as the date coincided with his own swearing-in ceremony. And Jagan’s predecessor Chandrababu Naidu, who was invited over phone by the YSRCP chief, decided to stay away from the event.
Jagan Reddy has emerged tall after an epic electoral win, vanquishing his rivals to claim the top seat in Andhra Pradesh.
Yeduguri Sandinti Jagan Mohan Reddy, the President of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), who made his electoral debut in the year 2009, the same year in which his father Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhara Reddy or YSR, became the CM of undivided Andhra Pradesh.
The political journey of the businessman-turned-politician has indeed been meteoric. Nearly a decade after YSR was tragically killed in a helicopter crash, Jagan who won the Lok Sabha seat in 2009 from home turf Kadappa, is set to succeed him as chief minister.
While Jagan was ready to take over as CM after his father’s death and had the backing of many legislators, the Congress party, then led by Sonia Gandhi, had other plans and propped up K Rosiah in the chief minister’s chair whom they replaced with Kiran Kumar Reddy. Jagan, along with his mother Y S Vijayamma, quit the Congress in 2010 to start his own party.
Jagan had then faced a series of corruption charges, which was slapped on him and his aides by the CBI after the High Court ordered a probe against him. He was arrested and jailed in 2012 and spent a total of 16 months in prison before being released on bail, just a few months before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

In that year, the YSRCP won 67 seats in the Assembly and ate into the Congress position in Andhra politics, relegating it to second place in the state. Success eluded him in the 2014 general elections. He lost out to Chandrababu Naidu who had tied up with actor Pawan Kalyan. There was also massive poaching of his MPs and MLAs by Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

However, Jagan refused to admit defeat and geared up for another fight with a record ‘padayatara’, which stretched for 14 months and ended this January. Jagan travelled through all the districts of Andhra Pradesh talking to, shaking hands with and mingling with people, emulating his father’s trademark style.

The 46-year-old leader finally swept into power after the 2019 elections defeating a 69-year-old Chandrababu Naidu who had snapped ties with the NDA government and had attempted to stitch together a non-BJP, non-NDA government at the Centre.

Taking a jibe at Naidu, Jagan Mohan Reddy recently said, “The fate of Chandrababu Naidu proves that God will punish those who act without justice. Chandrababu had purchased and grabbed 23 MLAs and three MPs of YSRCP in 2014. But now in 2019, his party is left with 23 MLAs and three MPs. God alone can write such great script and do such a wonderful poetic justice.” (With Agency Inputs ).