Narain Dutt Tiwari was sworn in as governor of Andhra Pradesh in Hyderabad on Wednesday morning.

Chief Justice of AP High Court G S Singhvi administered the oath of office to the new governor at a simple ceremony at Raj Bhavan.

Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, his cabinet colleagues, Andhra Pradesh Congress president Dr K Keshava Rao, Assembly Speaker K R Suresh Reddy and senior bureaucrats were present on the occasion.

In his remarks on his gubernatorial appointment, Tiwari said that Andhra Pradesh has a rich political and cultural history and the state is making strides in agriculture, industry and other fields.

"I have got the golden opportunity to serve the people through this Constitutional position," he added.

Incidentally, Tiwari is the 21st governor of the state. Tiwari succeeds Rameshwar Thakur, who has been transferred to Karnataka.

As Orissa governor, Rameshwar Thakur held additional charge of Andhra Pradesh from January 2006 when the then Andhra Pradesh governor Sushil Kumar Shinde quit the post to join the Union Cabinet.

The 82-year-old Tiwari is a veteran Congress leader from Uttar Pradesh. He was the chief minister of Uttarakhand during 2002 to 2007.

He was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh on three occasions -- 1976-77, 1984-85 and 1988.

Tiwari was elected to the UP Assembly for a record nine times since his maiden entry in 1952.

He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980. He was appointed Union minister for planning. After a stint as deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, he served as the Union minister for industry, external affairs, finance and commerce.

Tiwari was nominated to the Congress Working Committee in 1993 and appointed as UP Congress Committee president in 1994. A post-graduate from Allahabad University and a law graduate, Tiwari had participated in the freedom struggle and was jailed for 15 months.

In the mid-1990s, Tiwari had started what came to be known as "Tiwari Congress'. AP unit of Tiwari Congress was headed by K S Rao, presently Congress MP from Eluru.

Tiwari also knows the nitty-gritty of Andhra Pradesh politics as he had visited the state many times in the 1970s and 1980s in different capacities in the Congress. 

He was also responsible for the selection of candidates and was incharge of arranging funds for them during Assembly polls in the 1980s.