By IANS
Ahmedabad : Narendra Damodardas Modi, who led the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to a historic third consecutive victory in Gujarat, was Tuesday sworn in as chief minister of the state for a third time.
Governor Naval Kishore Sharma administered the oath of office and secrecy at 1.50 p.m. to 57-year-old Modi, who was dressed in his trademark half-sleeved khadi kurta and saffron angavastram and took the oath in Gujarati in the name of god.
He was the only one to be sworn in and ministers will be inducted later.
At the end of the formal ceremony, he bowed to the thousands of BJP supporters who had filled the 40,000-capacity Sardar Patel Stadium in the heart of this main city of Gujarat.
He also greeted BJP president Rajnath Singh and his mentor L.K. Advani, bending in respect and getting a hug in response.
It was Advani’s 1990 cross-country rath yatra to campaign for a Ram temple in Ayodhya that gave a fillip to Hindu nationalist politics in India – Modi was among the key organisers of the march.
Also present on the occasion were senior BJP leaders, including Murli Manohar Joshi, former vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the party’s Gujarat strategist Arun Jaitley, Gujarat in-charge Om Prakash Mathur and state unit president Purshottam Rupala.
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders like George Fernandes and Jaya Jaitley as well as BJP chief ministers – Vasundhara Raje of Rajasthan, Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh, Raman Singh of Chhattisgarh and B.C. Khanduri of Uttarakhand attended the ceremony. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi was also present.
However, former prime minister and senior-most BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whose birthday was chosen as the day for the ceremony, could not attend.
The glamour quotient was provided by cricketer-turned-parliamentarian Navjot Singh Sidhu, TV star and BJP leader Smriti Irani and actor Mukesh Khanna.
All 116 newly elected BJP legislators were present on the occasion.
Modi had arrived at the venue 20 minutes ahead of schedule amid bursting of crackers and frenzied supporters greeting him with slogans like “Modi Zindabad” and “Dekho Dekho Kaun Aaya, Gujarat ke Sher Aaya” (See who has come, the lion of Gujarat).
Many were wearing t-shirts with photographs of the man who has come to be known as the poster boy of Hindutva. The stadium, venue of international cricket matches before a new stadium came up on the outskirts of the city in 1982, turned saffron as many waved BJP flags.
Following earlier intelligence inputs of a threat to Modi, extra security measures were in place at the venue as well as his route from capital Gandhinagar to here.
After the ceremony, Modi along with Rajnath Singh, Advani and Rupala moved around the stadium in an open jeep, waving to the overflowing crowd of supporters.
In the assembly elections, the BJP won 117 seats, maintaining its nearly continuous hold over the state since 1995, with the victory largely credited to Modi.
In winning the crucial elections, whose results were announced Sunday, Modi not only overcame the anti-incumbency factor but also widespread dissent in the party against his “autocratic” ways and dished out a humiliating defeat to the Congress.
A Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist who was deputed to the BJP in 1987, Modi was a behind-the-scene strategist till the party made him chief minister Oct 6, 2001, replacing Keshubhai Patel whose popularity was declining.
In December 2002, Modi had led the party to victory with its highest tally of 127 seats in the 182-member house in the elections held in the aftermath of communal violence.