Raipur, December 12
After posting historical victory in 13-year-old Chhattisgarh for third consecutive time, BJP’s Raman Singh formally took reins of State once again as Governor Shekhar Dutt administered him oath for post of chief minister in presence of about 40 VVIPs ranging from BJP’s entire national leadership to CMs of six states, representatives of NDA allies and 20,000 spectators at police parade ground at 11:40 am in Raipur on Thursday.
This time, Singh took oath alone as his new team is yet to be finalised. According to information, he has prepared a list of MLAs whom he wants to induct in his cabinet, but the final nod will come from high command.
The new ministers are likely to take oath on December 15 or 16 as BJP’s top brasses would be busy in swearing-in ceremonies of Vasundhara Raje at Jaipur on December 13 and Shivraj Singh Chouhan at Bhopal on December 14.
Considering VVIP arrivals to participate in swearing in ceremony, State police had heightened security in the capital city from Swami Vivekanand airport to police parade ground. As the police had blocked several roads for VVIP movement, traffic in many parts of the city and its outskirts remained disrupted for a couple of hours after the function.
CM Raman Singh had engaged senior MLAs Brijmohan Agrawal and Amar Agrawal to receive guests at airport while Rajesh Munat took charge of stage. His spouse Veena Singh was seen greeting the guests on stage throughout the progamme.
After oath taking ceremony, Governor Shekhar Dutt hosted lunch at Rajbhawan for all the VVIP guests.
The top BJP leaders who participated in swearing-in ceremony included Lal Krishna Advani, Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari, Ramlal, Rajeev Pratap Rudi, Ravishankar Prasad, Smriti Irani, Uma Bharti, Sushil Modi, Navjot Singh Siddhu, Dr Harshvardhan, Ananth Kumar, Nitin Gadkari, Arjun Munda, Naredra Singh Tomar, Jagat Prakash Nadda and Dharmendra Pradhan.
Besides, BJP CMs Narendra Modi from Gujarat, Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Madhya Pradesh, Manohar Parrikar from Goa and Vasundhara Raje from Rajasthan were also present.
As an ally of BJP-led national democratic alliance (NDA), Shiromani Akali Dal was represented by Punjab CM Praksh Singh Badal and Shiv Sena by its chief Uddhav Thakre. Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik too featured among the guests as representative of his party Biju Janata Dal that was NDA’s former ally. In addition, business tycoon Subrata Roy Sahara was also seen sharing the stage with the VVIPs.
From Congress came former State CM Ajit Jogi with his family including spouse Dr Renu, son Amit and daughter-in-law. AICC treasurer Motilal Vora’s son Arun Vora and host of newly elected Congress MLAs too arrived to be the witness of historical moment.
Who said what
BJP president Rajnath Singh – This is people’s victory. Everybody in party worked hard for this. We will not stop here and win next assembly polls too in Chhattisgarh.
Former BJP chief Venkaiah Naidu – Winning elections three times in a streak is not an easy task. People gave mandate to Raman Singh-government because it did good job. Now, it is government’s turn to fulfill the promises it made to the people. The BJP is also ready to take challenge to post similar victory in entire country during general elections and form government at Centre.
Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan – It is success of BJP’s good governance in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The party will repeat its performance by winning maximum seats in the two states in Lok Sabha polls.
Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje – Congratulations to people of Chhattisgarh. The result in four states is just a trailer as we will seal thumping victory in 2014 general elections.
Former Chhattisgarh CM Ajit Jogi – We should respect pubic mandate. However, CM Raman Sing should not take firm steps to wipe out Maoists from Chhattisgarh.
Highlights
BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi, MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh get rousing welcome when they walked on stage.
Except exchange of greetings between them, LK Advani and Modi did not talk to each other. As usual BJP chief Rajnath Singh sat between Advani and Modi on stage.
Advani arrived with his daughter Pratibha while Shiv sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray was accompanied by son Aditya.
In the absence of senior Congress leaders, Ajit Jogi hogged the limelight at swearing-in ceremony and State BJP leaders were seen greeting him and talking with him amicably.
As Jogi was sitting in the front row on stage, almost all the top BJP leaders met him cordially.
When Advani came on stage, Jogi touched his feet and sought his blessings. Modi, Vasundhara Raje and Ravidhankar Prasad also talked for a while before commencement of the programme.
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