Mamata Banerjee was sworn in as the West Bengal Chief Minister for the second consecutive term on 27 May at the biggest and lavish swearing-in ceremony the state has witnessed.
Banerjee and her ministers administered the oath of office by governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on a stage set up on the city’s prime thoroughfare at 12.45pm, a time chosen by the ruling party chief herself.
Banerjee, the state’s eighth chief minister and the first woman to occupy the post, took her oath in Bengali. In 2011, Banerjee – Bengal’s first woman chief minister – was sworn in at the Raj Bhavan after she overthrew the 34-year-old Left Front regime from power.
Mamata Banerjee is too sharp a politician to miss her tryst with history. Like Narendra Modi’s claims of a Vibrant Gujarat, she knows a ‘Resurgent Biswa Bangla’ can be her ticket to a Congress-mukt anti-BJP national league. Hence, she has little option but to make Unnayan (development) her equivalent of the bullet train. Bengal has decidedly changed from Red to Green—but, she knows, without visible economic progress, it could easily turn to saffron in the next three to five years.
A galaxy of political leaders was present at the ceremony. Among them were Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar, RJD chief Lalu Prasad, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah and DMK leader Kanimozhi.
The Trinamool chief called on Tripathi at the Raj Bhavan on Thursday and handed over to him a list containing the names of her 41 ministers.
Former Bengal cricket captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla, singer Indranil Sen, retired police officers Abani Mohan Joardar and James Kujur and CPI(M) leader-turned-Trinamool MLA Abdur Rezzak Mollah were part of Banerjee’s team.
Shukla, 35, was the Bengal cricket team captain and also played for IPL teams KKR, Delhi Daredevils and Sunrisers Hyderabad. Now, he is a member of the Mohun Bagan cricket team.
There were 18 new faces, one of whom is Churamani Hansda, who was a member of People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities, an outfit that collaborated with CPI(Maoist) in the state.
Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee, a close lieutenant of the chief minister, was also named as a minister.
“Sovan will be given a portfolio related to his present assignment at the KMC,” Banerjee said.
In the list of ministers were four women, including the chief minister. The cabinet will also have seven Muslim faces.
The face that stood out in the new team is that of Mollah, an eight-time CPI(M) MLA and land reforms minister in the Left regime, who was a severe critic of former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and industry minister Nirupam Sen. He had openly spoken out against the Bhattacharjee regime’s acquisition of land in Singur and Nandigram.
