HYDERABAD: Six new ministers, who were hand-picked by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for inclusion in his cabinet, were administered the oath of office and secrecy at a colourful function organised at Raj Bhavan here on Tuesday.
Though almost all the ministers and MLAs were present, minister aspirants Konda Surekha and Koppula Eswar did not turn up at the event.
IT minister K T Rama Rao, who went on a two-day visit to Dubai, returned in the early hours of Tuesday and he too could not attend the function.
All the six ministerial candidates reached Raj Bhavan with their supporters and were administered the oath of office and secrecy by governor ESL Narasimhan.
Tummala Nageswar Rao was the first to take the oath, followed by A Indrakaran Reddy, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, C Laxma Reddy, Chandulal Ajmera and Jupally Krishna Rao. All of them took the oath in Telugu and in the name of God.
As Tummala’s name was called, he shouted ‘Jai Telangana’.
When Srinivas Yadav took the oath, his followers burst crackers outside the Raj Bhavan and celebrated.
Tummala, who recently defected to the TRS from the TDP, stood apart from others as he came clad in a pink shirt while all other ministers and TRS leaders came in white khadi.
Later, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and all the ministers had photos with governor ESL Narasimhan.