Thousands of people from various parts of the State descended on the city to witness the swearing-in of Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy as Chief Minister on Thursday.
Among them, a majority of men clad in white dothis came from the Rayalaseema region and Mr. Reddy’s Kadapa district.
“I attended the ceremony and really liked it,” said Raghavendra, who travelled from Mr. Reddy’s Pulivendula constituency in Kadapa district along with many other men.
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“Forty of us reached here last night and stayed in our sumos [SUVs] so that we can attend the event in time. The ceremony has been witnessed by people from almost every village of Pulivendula,” Mr. Raghavendra said.
Like Mr. Raghavendra, many people reached the city on Wednesday night or in the earlier hours of Thursday. There were many others who couldn’t make it into the stadium.
“Twenty of us came in two SUVs to the city this morning. But we could not get inside because we did not have passes. After futile attempts of getting through the gates, we ended up watching the ceremony on a screen installed outside the stadium,” said Pothanna of Kalyandurg in Anantapur.
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It was a long journey of about 14 hours, he said, while leaving the premises.
Technical glitches
Several people watched the goings-on on the screens arranged across the city, but technical glitches disappointed them.
At the NTR Circle at Patamata, the four-wall mobile LED screen set up by the government stopped playing just when Mr. Reddy appeared on the screen.
Brahmaiah of Penamaluru couldn’t watch the ceremony for the same reason.
“Instead of putting the screens here, the government should have moved them to interior pockets so that villagers can watch the ceremony. I do not have a TV or a smartphone and came here (NTR Circle), but the screen turned blank just before Mr. Reddy’s appearance,” Mr. Brahmaiah said with dismay.