Bhajan Lal Sharma of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday took oath as the new chief minister of Rajasthan. The first-time MLA was administered the oath by governor Kalraj Mishra during a ceremony at the Ramnivas Bag in Jaipur. BJP MLAs Diya Kumari and Prem Chand Bairwa were sworn in as his deputies.

The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda and chief ministers of several BJP-ruled states were present. Outgoing Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot also attended the ceremony.

Extensive security measures and seating arrangements have been put in place at the historic Albert Hall for the ceremony.

Bhajan Lal Sharma was named the chief minister during a BJP legislature party meeting on Tuesday, in the presence of the party’s central observers Rajnath Singh, Saroj Pandey and Vinod Tawde.

Sharma won the elections from the Sanganer assembly seat with an impressive margin of over 48,000 votes. He secured 145,162 votes against Congress’ Pushpendra Bhardwaj, who received 97,081 votes.

Sharma, who hails from Bharatpur district, has said the new BJP team under him would work on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision. “All our MLAs will work under the leadership of Modi ji to fulfil the aspirations that the people have from the BJP and take Rajasthan on the path of development,” he told reporters earlier.

With Sharma’s announcement, the BJP completed a generational shift in three key heartland states – Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh – that delivered impressive victories to the party in recently concluded assembly polls.

The BJP secured a significant victory in the November 25 assembly election, winning 115 seats out of the 199 contested seats (for the 200-member state assembly). In contrast, the ruling Congress party managed to secure only 69 seats.