M Reyaz BeyondHeadlines
Kolkata: Poriborton (Change) was made official today in Kolkata. Mamata Banerjee took oath as the first woman Chief Minister of West Bengal.
In a historic assembly election her party, Trinamul Congress (TMC) in alliance with the Congress, routed the Left after 34 years of uninterrupted rule from the state and rove on the anti-incumbancy for change. Poriborton chaai (need changes) was her main slogan.
Former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and LF chairman Biman Bose put up a brave faces and were present in the swearing in ceremony. They were personally invited by the new CM. From New Delhi, three cabinet ministers P Chidambaram, Pranab Mukherjee and AK Antony had come.
Along with her 43 minsters took oath – 7 congress members, 36 TMC members. The list included Amit Mitra, the former secretary general of FICCI, and is tipped to be her finance minister and senior leaders Partha Chatterjee, Manish Gupta, Subrata Mukherjee, Abdul Karim Chowdhury, Sadhan Pandey, Upen Biswas, Sabitri Mitra, Bratya Basu, Madan Mitra and Noore Alam Chowdhury.
At least 5 Muslim MLAs too found berth in the list of ministers.
Banerjee resigned yesterday as Railway Minister to become the eighth CM of the state. Four gaint screens have been put up at the Shahid Minaar, within the walking distance of the Governor House, for people to witness the event.
She went to Kalighat temple before reaching Raj Bhawan. While thanking her supporters she requested to maintain calm. She told them: “Thank you for your support. We need to keep calm and work.”
She foresaw the next seven days as very hectic when she has to work day and night and will hence “not meet anyone.”
