The Congress Party has once again scored a hat-trick by ensuring that the three chief-minister-designates of the party are sworn in on the same day yesterday (Monday) in three different States, albeit at different timings.
As reported earlier, the Congress rode huge anti-incumbency wave in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and displaced the BJP as the ruling party. After much dilly-dallying, the party high command (read: Sonia and Rahul Gandhi) zeroed in on senior leaders Ashok Gehlot, Kamal Nath and Bhupesh Baghel to head its Governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh (respectively in that order).

In Rajasthan, the swearing-in ceremony at was held at the historic Albert Hall in Jaipur at 10:00 a.m. when Ashok Gehlot took over as the State’s chief minister. Young Turk Sachin Pilot (son of former Union Minister Rajesh Pilot) was sworn-in as deputy chief minister). Congress president Rahul Gandhi, former prime-minister Manmohan Singh, DMK president Stalin and outgoing chief-minister Vasundara Raje Scindia attended the event.

The second swearing-in of the day was held at the Jambhuri Maidan at Bhopal shortly after noon when Kamal Nath was sworn-in as the chief-minister of Madhya Pradesh by Governor Anandiben Patel. Rahul Gandhi, Andhra Pradesh chief-minister Chandrababu Naidu, former Jammu & Kashmir chief-minister Farooq Abdullah and other leaders including Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot attended the function.

Bhupesh Baghel took over as Congress’ Chattisgarh chief-minister at a function held at 06:30 p.m. at Rakpur. The swearing-in ceremony commenced late by a couple of hours due to incessant rain. Congress president Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders graced the occasion.