Venkaiah Naidu sworn in as 13th Vice-President

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 11

M Venkaiah Naidu was on Friday sworn-in as the 13th Vice-President of India. President Ram Nath Kovind administered him the oath of office and secrecy at Rashtrapati Bhavan here. Naidu took oath in Hindi.

WATCH: M Venkaiah Naidu takes oath as vice president of India

— ANI (@ANI)

Follow ; and )                    

Wearing his trademark white panche (lungi) and white shirt, Naidu took oath in Hindi in the name of God.

His predecessor Hamid Ansari and the first vice-president S Radhakrishnan had held the post for two consecutive terms.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ex-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 veteran L K Advani, several union ministers, governors and chief ministers attended the ceremony.

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.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar -- who has joined hands with the BJP in his state -- also attended the ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

After the ceremony, President Kovind, Prime Minister Modi, ex-vice president Ansari, vice-presdent Naidu, and Advani were seen seated together.

Naidu's wife M Usha was also present.

Born in a humble agricultural family in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore district, Naidu has served as BJP president, minister in various portfolios and a long-time Rajya Sabha member.

This remarkable career in politics has been more than four decades in the making.

It began in the 1970s when BJP's precursor Jana Sangh was a marginal player with little clout in the south and a young party worker kept himself busy putting up posters of stalwarts such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani.

Naidu has come a long way since those days of political obscurity. —With PTI inputs