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Four swearing-ins and a deadlock

A nine-member two-tier Telugu Desam Party ministry headed by N Chandrababu Naidu was sworn-in in Andhra Pradesh today, even as a change of guard took place in Karnataka's Vidhana Soudha and Mukut Mithi in Arunachal Pradesh and Pawan Kumar Chamling in Sikkim began fresh terms as chief ministers.

Last minute consultations on government formation continued in Maharashtra with the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine postponing its move to stake claim to form the government.

The swearing in ceremonies took place at simple but impressive functions in Bangalore, Itanagar, Gangtok and Hyderabad.

In Hyderabad, the new council of ministers was greeted by party workers clad in yellow angavastrams.

Former CBI director, K Vijayarama Rao, speaker of the dissolved assembly Y Ramakrishnudu and the TDP politburo member V Sobanadeshwar Rao were among the new faces inducted into the Naidu cabinet.

Another new face S Saraswathi of Cuddapah district, the lone woman member in the ministry, has been inducted as a minister of state.

Governor C Rangarajan administered the oath of office and secrecy to Naidu and the other ministers.

Later, Naidu told waiting newspersons that the cabinet expansion would take place ''as soon as possible''. The portfolios were expected to be alloted later in the day.

In Bangalore, Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishnna was sworn in as the 16th chief minister of Karnataka at an impressive function.

Governor Khurshed Alam Khan administered the oath of office and secrecy to 67-year-old Krishna before a large gathering. The mood was festive as Krishna took the oath amid bursting crackers.

Krishna said he would constitute his council of ministers at a later date after consultations with the Congress high command.

Krishna, who has been in and out of state politics, was the deputy chief minister in the Moily cabinet in 1992-94. He became PCC president in February this year and played a pivotal role in the Congress' return to power in the state.

Chances of a Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government in Maharashtra brightened with former defence minister, Sharad Pawar, saying that his party was negotiating only with the Congress.

BJP trouble-shooter Pramod Mahajan was to arrive in the state capital later in the day to resolve the deadlock between the Shiv Sena and its ally, the BJP over the issue of chief ministership.

The BJP has reportedly expressed reservations over Sena leader Narayan Rane becoming the chief minister.

The Shiv Sena, which had made all preparations to meet Governor Dr P C Alexander and stake claim for forming the next government today, postponed the visit after some BJP leaders expressed their distress over the unilateral move.

A two-tier, 38-member Congress ministry headed by Mukut Mithi was sworn-in in Arunachal Pradesh.

The ministry comprises 25 cabinet ministers, including the chief minister himself, and 13 ministers of state.

Mithi has assumed the office of the chief minister for the second time in this border state.

In january, he took over the reins of the government after the 19-month-old Gegong Apang ministry was voted out of office.

All but one of the old cabinet colleagues of Mithi have been given berth in the newly formed ministry.

There are twelve new faces in the council of ministers and four of them are of cabinet rank.

Talking to newspersons immediately after the swearing-in ceremony, Mithi said though infrastructure development was mentioned as the party's main priority in its manifesto, he had now realised that basic minimum needs of the people needs would have to be attended to first.

In Gangtok, a 17-member two-tier Sikkim Democratic Front ministry, headed by Pawan Chamling, was sworn in at a simple ceremony.

Governor Chaudhury Randhir Singh administered the oath of office and secrecy to Chamling and his council of ministers.

Later, speaking to newspersons Chamling said the party's lone woman legislator Kalawai Subba would become the Himalayan state's first woman speaker.

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