Naidu to skip Jagan’s swearing-in ceremony

KCR and Stalin to attend

Telugu Desam Party chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu has decided to send a team of three senior party leaders to wish Chief Minister-elect Y S Jaganmohan Reddy to his Tadepalli residence on Thursday on the eve of his swearing-in as the second chief minister of the residual state of Andhra Pradesh.

Naidu, who was unanimously elected by the legislature party on Wednesday as TDLP leader, will not be attending the ceremony to be held at the Indira Gandhi stadium in Vijayawada.

Party leaders Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Payyavula Keshav and K Achennanidu will meet Jagan. “There is no specific reason for our leader to skip the ceremony. If the function was at the Raj Bhavan he would have attended the swearing-in ceremony. But it is in front of the general public that Jagan will be addressing the crowd. It is not a tradition for the opposition leader to attend such a public affair,” Keshav told a TV channel.

While Jaganmohan Reddy personally met and invited Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, he made phone calls to TDP chief Naidu, DMK chief Stalin, Janasena chief Pawan Kalyan and his elder brother Chiranjeevi. Stalin and KCR will be attending the swearing-in.

Arrangements for the event were completed under the supervision of state Chief Secretary L V Subramanyam. Seating arrangements have been made for 40,000 invitees and the general public. Around 10,500 passes have been issued. Huge LCD screens have been erected outside the stadium for the public to view the ceremony.
Temple, mosque, church

A day ahead of taking over the reins from Naidu, Jagan spent time visiting famous shrines of different religions and offered prayers. He offered prayers at the hill shrine of Sri Venkateswara Swamy in Tirumala during the morning hours. He entered the temple through Vaikuntham Queue Complex, where "Tirunamam" was applied and he was accompanied by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Executive Officer Anil Kumar Singhal to the sanctum sanctorum. Later he offered prayers to the presiding deity and also prayed in the sub-shrines of Vakula Mata, Bhashyakarulavaru, and Yoga Narasimhaswamy and deposited offerings in Srivari Hundi.

He then left for Kadapa, where he offered Chaddar at the famous “Aminpeer Dargah”. Later, he participated in special prayers at the CSI Church in Pulivendula, his assembly constituency. After offering tributes at his father’s resting place Idupulapaya, he returned here. He also offered prayers at the Kanaka Durga temple here.