Venkaiah Naidu becomes country's 13th Vice-President of India

Veteran politician M Venkaiah Naidu today became the 15th Vice-President of the country, beginning the second  innings  of his public life.

Mr Naidu was administered the oath of office by President Ram Nath Kovind at a simple ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

The function was attended  by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Naidu's immediate predecessor Hamid Ansari senior members of the cabinet, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, veteran BJP leader L K Advani and party chief Amit Shah, among others distinguished people.

Mr Naidu succeeds Mr Ansari whose second consecutive tenure expired yesterday.

Mr Naidu was elected Vice-President on August 5, defeating joint Opposition candidate Gopal Krishna Gandhi.

The 68-year-old leader has risen to the second highest Constitutional post of the country after four decades in active politics which he joined in his college days as member of Akhil Bharati Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the BJP.

The veteran politician will now be the first BJP-Sangh leader to assume the Office of Vice-President. Last month, the top constitutional post of President also went to a person from the same background?Ramnath Kovind.

Mr Naidu, who was born into an agricultural family at Chavatapalem village in the coastal district of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh on July 1, in 1949, came under the influence of RSS in his most formative years.

He has served as BJP president twice besides holding important portfolios as Union Minister. His last Ministry was of Information and Broadcasting.

Before his election, Mr Naidu was a Rajya Sabha member from Rajathan.

Other eminent people who have served at the top constitutional post so far are Dr S Radhakrishnan, Dr Zakir Husain, Mr V Venkata Gri, Mr Gopal Swarup Pathak, Mr BD Jatti, Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah, Mr R Venkataraman, Mr Shankara Dayal Sharma, Mr KR Narayanan, Mr Krishna kant, Mr Bhaion Singh Shekhawat and Mohammad Hamid Ansari.

Earlier, Mr Naidu visited Rajghat to pay tribute to Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi and later he paid floral tributes at the statues of Deen Dayal Uadhyaya and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.