Ms Mamata Banerjee and Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee seldom came face to face in the last 11 years when the latter was at the helm, except on one occasion when the then governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi brought them together at Raj Bhavan to resolve the Singur issue.
However, on Friday Mr Bhattacharjee had a ringside view of Ms Banerjee’s swearing-in. Mr Biman Bose and Mr Asim Dasgupta were the other CPI(M) bigwigs who were present on the historic occasion. Ironically, in 2001 and 2006, Ms Banerjee had boycotted Mr Bhattacharjee’s swearing-in.
Ms Banerjee had on Thursday demonstrated remarkable political courtesy by sending her party’s Parth Chatterjee to Mr Bhattacharjee’s house to personally invite her predecessor and his wife for the event.
On Friday, just a minute before climbing on the dais to take the oath of office, she went to the first rows where the VVIP guests were seated. In the first row on a sofa sat the former chief minister, former state finance minister Asim Dasgupta and CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose. She went close to them and with folded hands said “Namashkar.” The trio reciprocated her gesture. It was a very brief encounter but it became inarguably an important moment in the political history of Bengal, where such niceties had become rare.