Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee made history on Friday afternoon, taking the oath of office as the first woman chief minister of West Bengal. It was exactly a week after she had dethroned the CPI(M)-led Left Front, which ruled the state for the past 34 years. Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who succeeded the iconic Jyoti Basu as
CM over a decade ago, in November 2000, was sitting in the front row as Ms Banerjee was sworn in as his successor by governor M.K. Narayanan at the Raj Bhavan premises.
Following the oath-taking ceremony, attended by a record 3,500-plus invitees, Ms Banerjee walked to the nearby Writers’ Buildings, the seat of the state administration 1 km away, giving the security personnel nighmares as she mingled freely with thousands of admirers and onlookers along the route.
After assuming charge in the CM’s chamber at Writers, she held her first Cabinet meeting and then held a press conference to announce some major decisions. These include the return of 400 acres of land to farmers at Singur, from the 1,000 acres initially allocated to Tata Motors for its proposed Nano plant, later abandoned. This had been a consistent demand at all her election meetings, and she had promised that if elected to power one of her first priorities would be to ensure the return of these 400 acres. She has kept her promise. She also said that if the Tatas wanted to set up a factory on the remaining 600 acres at Singur, they were welcome to do so.
A 37-member ministry was sworn in along with her — including two from the Congress. Four Trinamul MLAs were sworn in as ministers of state.
The key portfolio of finance has been given to Mr Amit Mitra, former Ficci secretary-general, while commerce, industries and parliamentary affairs has gone to her close aide Partha Chatterjee, who will also be deputy leader in the Assembly. Mr Manas Bhunia and Mr Abu Hena from the Congress were sworn in as Cabinet ministers. The Congress will get five more berths in the ministry.
Other Trinamul MLAs sworn in as ministers included former state chief secretary Manish Gupta, who had defeated the former chief minister from Jadavpur, and retired senior IPS officers Rachpal Singh and H.A. Safwi. Mr Upendranath Biswas, a former top CBI officer, took the oath in the name of Lord Buddha. Besides Ms Banerjee, Ms Sabitri Mitra of the Trinamul Congress will be the only other woman in the Cabinet.
She also announced a 10-member committee to review the cases of political prisoners for possible release. She made it clear, however, that cases under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (mostly against Maoists) would not be considered.
Ms Banerjee had earlier indicated that her council of ministers would be smaller than that of the Left Front, but it now appears that she will have a 44-member ministry, the maximum size possible under rules limiting it to 15 per cent of the size of the Assembly (294 seats). When asked about the promise of a small team, she said: “It is our complete council of ministers. Thirty-seven ministers have been sworn in today, and six more — including five from the Congress — will be sworn in soon.”
Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and home minister P. Chidambaram were among the key dignitaries who attended her swearing-in. Around 3,500 special guests, including top industrialists, film celebrities and sports stars, academics, writers, painters, politicians and social activists were there at Raj Bhavan to see “paribartan” being ushered in. They included Harsh Neotia, Sanjiv Goenka, Sanjay Budhia, Prasenjit, Mamata Shankar, Ranjit Mullick, Koel Mullick, Goutam Ghose, Hashim Abdul Halim and Kshiti Goswami.
At her Kalighat home, the scene was no different. From early morning thousands of people, including women and children, massed outside the state’s most famous address. When Ms Banerjee emerged, they greeted her by beating drums and blowing conch shells.
At exactly 1.01 pm, West Bengal chief secretary Samar Ghosh called her name and requested her to come to the podium. Governor M.K. Narayanan administered her the oath of office and secrecy, after which the other new ministers took the oath.
Immediately after the swearing-in ceremony ended at 2.30 pm, Mr Mukherjee and Mr Chidambaram climbed onto the dais to congratulate Ms Banerjee. She later walked on to the open lawns and had some refreshments with Mr Narayanan and his wife. She then had a long meeting with the Governor. “We talked about the development of the state. I will hold talks with him once every week,” Ms Banerjee said after the meeting.