DHAKA: K Chandrasekhar Rao took oath of office on Monday morning as the first chief minister of Telangana, India's 29th state, created at midnight yesterday by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh.

As he was sworn in, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, "India gets a new state! We welcome Telangana as our 29th state...Congrats to K Chandrasekhar Rao Garu on taking oath as Telangana's 1st CM. My best wishes to people for the state's development journey." (Complete Coverage | Live Blog)

He also said, "Centre assures complete support to the people & Government of Telangana in taking the state to newer heights of progress."

Earlier on Monday morning, ESL Narasimhan was sworn in as Governor of both Telangana and the residuary Andhra Pradesh. The two states will share a Governor and Hyderabad as a common capital for 10 years.

Mr Rao or KCR as he is popularly known as, took oath along with 12 ministers, including his son KT Rama Rao and nephew T Harish Rao. Last month his party, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS had won 62 of the 119 seats in the newly formed Telangana Assembly.

Hyderabad and other parts of the new state have been celebrating since midnight, the capital city washed in pink, the colour of the TRS.

KCR will make his first address as chief minister at the police grounds in Secunderabad and will enter the Telangana state secretariat at noon. C Block, which was occupied by the chief ministers of undivided Andhra Pradesh, will be his office.

Source: NDTV

BDST: 1210 HRS, JUN 02, 2014