The Hindu : Front Page : Mohammad Hamid Ansari sworn in as 13th Vice-President

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Sunday, Aug 12, 2007
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Mohammad Hamid Ansari sworn in as 13th Vice-President

Special Correspondent

— Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

sworn-in: President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Mohammad Hamid Ansari and his wife Salma after Mr. Ansari was sworn in Vice-President at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Saturday.

NEW DELHI: Mohammad Hamid Ansari was on Saturday sworn in as the country’s 13th Vice-President.

The oath of office was administered by President Pratibha Patil at a brief ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Clad in a sherwani, Mr. Ansari took the oath in English and was greeted with a thunderous applause by distinguished guests, who included Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Mr. Ansari, who was the common candidate of the UPA-Left combine, posted an impressive victory on Friday in the Vice-Presidential polls which witnessed a triangular contest.

Among those who attended the swearing-in ceremony were Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee; Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani; and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha K. Rahman Khan, Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami and Election Commissioners Navin Chawla and S.Y. Qureshi and several Cabinet Ministers attended the ceremony. Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechuri and Communist Party of India (CPI) MP D. Raja were also present.

Chennai Special Correspondent reports:

Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has congratulated Mohammad Hamid Ansari on his election as the Vice-President. In a message here on Saturday, Mr. Karunanidhi said, “The country is quite confident that you will definitely safeguard the secular and democratic traditions.”

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