Maya Ray, the widow of last Congress chief minister of the state Siddhartha Shankar Ray, regretted that he was not present to see the Left Front’s exit from power and Mamata Banerjee take over as the new chief minister of Bengal. “How I wish my husband had lived for six more months, then he would have witnessed this great achievement of Mamata Banerjee whom he was extremely fond of,” she added.
Ms Ray was speaking to Trinamul Congress secretary general and deputy leader in the state Assembly Partha Chatterjee who called on her with Ms Banerjee’s personal invitation to attend her swearing-in as the new chief minister.
Ms Ray also regretted the absence of another prominent Congress leader Priya Ranjan Das Munshi. “He too would have been immensely pleased but unfortunately he is seriously ill,” she added.
Asked to comment on Ms Banerjee’s victory, Ms Ray said she could not express her joy in words. “Mamata has really worked hard and she deserves this success,” she said, adding that she was confident that Ms Banerjee would prove to be a great success as the chief minister. Ray was the last Congress chief minister who ruled from 1972 to 1977. The CPI(M)-led Left Front came to power in 1977 and then went on to rule for seven consecutive terms. The beleaguered Congress could never match the might of the CPI(M). It was Ms Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress which gave the CPI(M) a run for its money and finally removed it from power. Ray died in November, 2010. Ms Banerjee had then rushed to his Beltala residence not far from her Kalighat home. “He used to tell me that he wanted to see change in Bengal but always feared that he would not live to see that change,” Ms Banerjee had said then.