Hyderabad: And so it was on Wednesday when YSR was sworn in as chief minister by Governor N D Tiwari. It was a record of sorts, bringing the Congress back to power for a successive term for the first time in three decades. What's more, he managed to send 33 members to the Lok Sabha, four more than the last time.
Said Y S Rajasekhar Reddy: "It is because of credible leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh and at the state level also. We have fulfilled all the promises that we made."
The first file that YSR signed on taking over as chief minister in May 2004 was to give free power to farmers. This time round he signed on two files one on increasing free power from 7 to nine hours and a second on increasing subsidised rice to each BPL family from 20 to 30 kg.
To a large extent, the welfare policies of the Congress have worked for the party. That's why YSR wants to reinforce that image. YSR also needs to thank the rain gods for being kind to the state all through his tenure whereas the state witnessed its worst spells of drought under Chandrababu Naidu.