Revanth takes oath as T'gana CM

Anumala Revanth Reddy, who led the Congress to its first assembly elections victory in Telangana, took oath on Thursday as the second chief minister of India's youngest state along with one deputy and 10 other ministers.

- Suresh Dharur

At a ceremony at the packed Lal Bahadur stadium in Hyderabad in the presence of a galaxy of party leaders and thousands of followers, Reddy, 54, became the first Congress chief minister of Telangana, nearly a decade after it was carved out of Andhra Pradesh.

With 65 seats in the 119-member assembly, the Congress dislodged the two-term Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government headed by K Chandrashekar Rao in the recently concluded assembly polls.

"We have ended the misrule of BRS and will work for the ideals for which the Telangana statehood movement was started," Revanth said in an emotional speech after taking the oath. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan administered oath of office and secrecy to Revanth Reddy and 11 members of his cabinet including deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, the party's Dalit face.