Congress leader Revanth Reddy took oath as the chief minister of Telangana in Hyderabad on Thursday.

Congress’ Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, who became the state’s deputy chief minister, and ten other MLAs were also administered oath by Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan.

The ministers who were inducted into the Reddy cabinet are Uttam Kumar Reddy, Damodar Raja Narasimha, D Sridhar Babu, Ponnam Prabhakar, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Danasari Anasuya, Tummala Nageswara Rao, Konda Surekha and Jupally Krishna Rao.

Besides top Congress leaders such as party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, several representatives from other parties of the Opposition INDIA bloc were present at the swearing-in ceremony at Hyderabad’s Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium.

Reddy is the second chief minister of India’s youngest state. Former Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao held the position from 2014 to 2023. Rao resigned after his Bharat Rashtra Samithi party lost the Assembly elections on Sunday.

The decision to appoint Reddy to the top post was taken at a meeting attended by Congress leaders Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and national general secretary KC Venugopal in Delhi on Tuesday. A Congress Legislature Party meeting was subsequently held in Hyderabad before the official announcement.

Reddy won from the Kodangal Assembly constituency by 32,532 votes. The Congress bagged 64 of the state’s 119 Assembly constituencies, as per Election Commission data. A total of 60 seats is needed to form a government in Telangana.

Reddy was appointed as the Congress’ Telangana president in July 2021 and steered the party to its first victory in the state and its only win in the Assembly elections held in five states.

In 2018, the Congress had secured just 19 seats in Telangana.

Reddy previously served as an MP from the Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency from 2019 to 2023 and has served as an MLA from Kodangal twice.

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