Kiran Reddy sworn in as new Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee after the announcement of Kiran Kumar Reddy as the new Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh at Assembly Committee hall on November 25, 2010.

Mr Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy, until now the Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, was today sworn in as the 16th Chief Minister of the State in succession to Mr K Rosaiah, who resigned yesterday in a surprise move.

Mr Reddy, 50, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor E S L Narasimhan at a brief ceremony in the Darbar Hall of Raj Bhavan here.

Union Ministers M Veerappa Moily and Ghulam Nabi Azad, who were the Congress party's Central observers, senior State Congress leaders, MLAs and MLCs were amongst those present at the ceremony.

Mr Reddy, who was the only one to be sworn in today, is expected to finalise his Council of Ministers in the next day or two in consultation with the Congress High Command, sources said.

Mr Rosaiah, 77, announced his decision to quit yesterday, citing personal reasons and poor health and submitted his resignation to the Governor.

The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) met here last night to decide on a successor. Senior Central leaders of the Congress such as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Mr Moily were present to elicit the views of the party's legislators on who the next Chief Minister should be.

The meeting finally left the decision on the new leader to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who chose Mr Reddy after she heard from Mr Mukherjee and Mr Moily about the legislator's views. The party's decision was announced by Mr Mukherjee here last night.

Mr Reddy, who has degrees in Commerce and Law, is in his fourth term as a legislator. Among other achievements, he has played for the Hyderabad Ranji Trophy cricket team.

Mr Rosaiah had told journalists before meeting the Governor yesterday that there were no political reasons for his decision to step down and made it clear that no one had asked for his resignation.

The State unit of the Congress has been in a bit of a turmoil in the past few days after Sakshi TV, a television channel owned by Congress MP Jaganmohan Reddy, the son of late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, known popularly as YSR, telecast a programme last Friday that was critical of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The management of the channel claimed Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy was not aware of the contents of the programme and it later sought to make amends by repeating the programme without the controversial portions.

Mr Jaganmohan Reddy was overlooked by the party while choosing a successor to his father. He and his supporters have since then been seemingly challenging the decision through campaigns such as the recent Ordarpu Yatra in which he toured many parts of the State in what appeared to be a show of strength an act of defiance against the High Command.

The charismatic and hugely popular YSR died in a helicopter crash on September 2 last year and Mr Rosaiah was chosen to take over as the Chief Minister the next day, but he found the going tough from the start, paling in comparison to his predecessor on the one hand and having to contend with dissident campaigns, on the other. There was also the added pressure of the revived demand for statehood for the Telangana region.

The Congress is hoping that Mr Reddy, will be able to neutralise the campaigns being mounted by Mr Jaganmohan Reddy, given his young age and the fact that he belongs to the influential Reddy community and hails from the Rayalaseema region, like YSR's son.

New Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy with a patient at NIMS Hospital, Hyderabad, on November 25, 2010

Also, Mr Reddy used to be the Congress Chief Whip in the Assembly during YSR's time and this has brought him into close contact with almost all the MLAs of the party.

There were indications tonight that the new Council of Ministers would have a Deputy Chief Minister, who could be from the Telangana region.

A known YSR loyalist, one of Mr Reddy's first actions as the new Chief Minister was to visit the NIMS Hospital here to meet a patient being treated under the Arogyasree, a popular scheme that was started by YSR. This step was seen by many people as an indication of Mr Reddy's plans to build on the YSR legacy.