Chief ministerial swearing-in ceremonies are fast becoming grand occasions

Raj Bhavans are out, public maidans are in. Chief ministerial swearing-in ceremonies are fast becoming grand occasions, resembling nothing less than imperial coronations. Attended by the high and mighty of politics, industry and cinema, the oathtaking itself is being sandwiched between displays of parties' marketing blitz. Where the winner is from the ruling party at the Centre, the function transforms into a platform for national politics while for regional parties, it's a time to project a larger-than-life image of the victor. ET takes a look

Full NDA Show in Guwahati CEREMONY HELD at 1-lakh capacity Khanapara rally ground in Guwahati. Attended by PM and several CMs. Speeches by PM and other leaders, surging crowd lent oathtaking an atmosphere of a victory rally. Sonowal vowed to halt infi ltration, his party's poll promise

WHO ATTENDED PM Narendra Modi, LK Advani, several Union ministers & CMs of MP, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Punjab, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Nagaland & Maharashtra

Jayalalithaa's Grand Show CEREMONY HELD at Madras University Centenary Auditorium in Chennai; 3,500 special invitees. Jaya's cavalcade covered 7 km at a moderate speed to enable onlookers to have a glimpse of their ‘Amma'. Day chosen to fulfi l poll promise. About 1,500 police personnel were deployed, LCD screens at the Marina beach
WHO ATTENDED Venkaiah Naidu, Pon Radhakrishnan, Rajnikanth, AC Muthaiah of SPIC, India Cements MD N Srinivasan

Mamata's Durbar LARGE THAN life, literally. Huge Mamata cutouts line Kolkata's Red Road, an arterial road that links the state secretariat and the High Court, and also the ceremony venue, representatives of Bhutan and Bangladesh among attendees

WHO ATTENDED Bhutan PM Tshering Tobgay & Bangladeshi Industries Minister, FM Arun Jaitley, Babul Supriyo, Lalu & Farooq Abdullah. Presence of CMs Nitish Kumar, Akhilesh Yadav & Arvind Kejriwal trigger talk of new front

Vijayan's Swearing-in ADS ANNOUNCING Vijayan's swearing-in published in national dailies, oath-taking held outside Raj Bhavan for the second time. Function attended by at least 30,000 people at the Central Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram, CM proceeds to secteriat after ceremony, sea of red fl ags in city

WHO ATTENDED HD Deve Gowda, Sitaram Yechury, Prakash Karat, VS Achuthanandan, Oommen Chandy. Actors Mammootty, Innocent, Dileep & Mukesh