Mumbai: Chennamaneni Vidyasagar Rao, a veteran BJP leader from Telangana, was yesterday evening sworn-in as the new governor of Maharashtra.
The Bharatiya Janata Party leader was sworn in at a function at the Raj Bhavan following the resignation of K Sankaranarayanan on August 24.
Rao, 73, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Bombay High Court Chief Justice Mohit Shah.
Present on the occasion were Rao’s wife Vinoda, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Anant Geete, Telangana BJP state president Kishan Reddy, Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra legislative council Vinod Tawde, several state ministers, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command Admiral Anil Chopra among others.
Later, Rao was accorded a ceremonial guard of honour by the Indian Navy. He took charge from Gujarat Governor O P Kohli, who was holding additional charge of Maharashtra since the past one week. Rao, who hails from Telangana’s Karimnagar, had earlier served as minister of state for home in the government under then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
After his schooling and early college from Hyderabad, Rao completed his BSc from Maharashtra and later studied law at Osmania University. During his academic career, he was active with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
He practiced law before plunging into active politics and was elected thrice from Metpalli to the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh assembly in 1985, 1989 and 1994.
Rao was also elected twice to the Lok Sabha from Karimnagar, but lost the 2014 election from the same constituency.
During the Emergency in 1975, he was imprisoned under MISA for a year in the Warangal central jail. Rao and his wife Vinoda have a daughter and two sons.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Governor-designate Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala, 76, will take the oath of office tomorrow at the Raj Bhavan. Karnataka High Court Chief Justice D H Waghela will administer the oath, a state official said yesterday.
Vala will take over from Tamil Nadu governor K Rosaiah, who was made acting governor a day after H R Bhardwaj demitted office June 29 on completing his five-year term.
Following his appointment by the president on Tuesday, Vala resigned as Gujarat assembly Speaker on Thursday and as a lawmaker from Rajkot in the western state’s Saurashtra region.
A close associate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vala was also a cabinet minister for over a decade in the BJP governments of Modi and Keshubhai Patel. When Modi took over as chief minister in 2001, Vala vacated the Rajkot-2 assembly seat, making way for him to enter the Lower House.
During his long tenure as minister, Vala held many portfolios, including finance and revenue and presented a record number of budgets in the Gujarat assembly.
IANS
