Venkaiah Naidu sworn in as vice president

 M Venkaiah Naidu was on Friday sworn in as the 15th Vice President of India in a ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan attended by top leaders of the country.

Naidu (68) was administered the oath of oath and secrecy by President Ram Nath Kovind at a 10-minute ceremony in the Darbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan in the morning. Wearing his trademark white dhoti and white shirt, he took oath in Hindi in the name of god.

Naidu is the 15th Vice President and the 13th person to hold the constitutional post. His immediate predecessor Hamid Ansari and second Vice President S Radhakrishnan had served two terms.

The function was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, outgoing Vice President Ansari, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, BJP's L K Advani, several union ministers, governors and chief ministers attended the ceremony. Naidu's wife M Usha was also present.

SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, NCP's Tariq Anwar, CPI leader D Raja, TMC leaders Sudip Bandhopadhyay and Derek O' Brien and AIADMK's O Panneerselvam were also seen.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his counterparts in Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi) and N Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh) were among the Chief Ministers who attended the ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

After the ceremony, the President Kovind, Modi, Ansari, the new Vice Presdent Naidu and Advani were seen seated together.

Later, the Prime Minister said Naidu has become Vice President and Chairman of Rajya Sabha on a historic day as freedom fighter and revolutionary Khudiram Bose was executed by Britishers on the same day.

Naidu, who was elected the post in a contest in which opposition has jointly fielded Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi, entered politics as a student leader and had risen to become BJP president. He was also minister in A B Vajpayee government as well as in the current Modi regime.