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Vasundhara Raje, who led the Bharatiya Janata Paty to a landslide victory in the Rajasthan assembly polls, was on Friday sworn in as the chief minister for the second time, in the presence of Narendra Modi and other top party leaders.
Raje, who belongs to the royal Scindia family of Gwalior, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Margaret Alva during a grand swearing-in ceremony inside the assembly building premises in Jaipur. She was the only one to be sworn-in.
Among the BJP leaders who attended the function were party president Rajnath Singh, its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and other senior leaders of the party.
Elected Members of Legislative Assembly and a large number of religious heads also attended the function.
The main stage for the ceremony was erected inside the assembly building premises. Large screens were installed at the venue to allow the invitees sitting at a distance to watch the live telecast of the ceremony.
Raje took blessings from the religious heads and greeted Rajnath Singh, Modi, Advani, her predecessor Ashok Gehlot and others present on the stage, before being sworn in as the chief minister.
The governor, after administering the oath, congratulated the new chief minister. Raje later greeted people and met others gathered in the assembly premises for the swearing-in ceremony.
The extravagant ceremony, however, did not go down well with many political parties. The Aam Aadmi Party leaders claimed that they will file a Right to Information and find out how much public money was spent on the function. “The amount of money wasted on the ceremony would have been good enough for the AAP party to fight election in Rajasthan,” claimed Mulakraj Singh, district secretary, AAP (Jaipur).
Before taking oath, Raje went to pay tribute at the Amar Jawan Jyoti and addressed party legislators and cadres at the party office. “Whoever has won are champions but they also carry a lot of responsibility. No one should come to me and say that I am from so and so community and family,” Raje warned her MLAs and cadre.
Soon after the ceremony, Raje went to the secretariat. She transferred eight Indian Administrative Service officials and two Indian Police Service officers.
Omendra Bharadwaj has been appointed as the new Director General of Police of Rajasthan replacing Harish Meena, who has been made as Director General, Jail.
CS Rajan has given additional charge of chief secretary. Earlier, CK Mathew was CS, Rajasthan who has been made president, Rajasthan Road Transport Board.
BJP won 162 of the 199 seats where elections were held.
Polling in Churu seat in the 200-member House was postponed due to the death of a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate.
With inputs from PTI
Image: Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje ' Photograph Courtesy: http://www.vasundhararaje.in/