Revanth Reddy to take oath as CM at 1.04 pm on Thursday

All the 64 Congress MLAs handed over a letter with their signatures to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan supporting his candidature to the Chief Minister's post.

Hyderabad: TPCC president A Revanth Reddy will take oath as the new Chief Minister of Telangana at the Lal Bahadur Stadium at 1.04 pm on Thursday. He will succeed K Chandrashekhar Rao as the second Chief Minister of the young State and the first Congress Chief Minister here.

While it is immediately unclear about names of MLAs who might also take oath along with Revanth Reddy, official sources said a few legislators would be inducted into the Cabinet. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan will administer the oath.

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Sources said Revanth Reddy was likely to put his first signature on an appointment letter to a differently abled person Rajini to whom he had earlier promised to provide a job after the Congress came to power. He was also expected to sign files pertaining to implementation of the Congress party’s six guarantees as promised in the manifesto.

Revanth Reddy, who is in Delhi, had personally invited Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, AICC president Mallikharjun Kharge, senior leaders Priyanka Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal and other AICC functionaries on Wednesday. Along with top leaders, Sonia Gandhi is likely to attend the swearing-in ceremony in Telangana.

Invitations for the event have also been sent to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddharamaiah, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shiva Kumar, former Telangana Chief Minister and BRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao and also to TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu among others.

The families of Telangana martyrs along with civil society leaders Prof Haragopal, Gade Innaiah, TJS president M Kodandaram and other organisations that took part in the Telangana movement also have been invited for the ceremony.

Though the swearing-in ceremony was initially scheduled at 10.28 am, the time was changed to make more elaborate arrangements as more than one lakh people were expected to attend the ceremony. Separate galleries with seating are being arranged for around 30,000 invitees including VVIPs inside the LB Stadium, with LED screens installed on the stadium premises for others.

Chief Secretary A Santhi Kumari and DGP Ravi Gupta held a meeting with senior officials and senior Congress leaders on the arrangements for the swearing-in ceremony and also visited the LB stadium here on Wednesday. In view of the event, the police have decided to impose traffic restrictions in the surrounding areas.

Earlier in the day, a Congress delegation led by TPCC working president Mahesh Kumar Goud called on the Governor at Raj Bhavan and presented the letter declaring the election of Revanth Reddy as the Congress Legislative Party leader. They urged the Governor to invite the Congress party to form the new government in Telangana.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi, who spent nearly 50 minutes with Revanth Reddy at the former’s residence to discuss the way forward, took to social media platform X and congratulated him. “Congratulations to Telangana’s CM Designate, @revanth_anumula. Under his leadership, the Congress govt will fulfill all its Guarantees to the people of Telangana and build a Prajala Sarkar (sic),” he posted.