Green in, red out; Mamata heralds new era in West Bengal

Kolkata, May 20: West Bengal, which had seen the domination of red for more than three decades as the Left ruled the state for the last 34 years, goes green with Mamata Banerjee.

The Trinamool Congress chief, Mamata is all set to take her oath as the first woman Chief Minister of the state. Today, (Friday, May 20) the swearing-in ceremony, in the presence of 3200 invitees drawn from among the top names in politics, business, art and culture, will take place at 1:01 pm as per the wish of the Trinamool supremo.

Mamata will head the first non-Left government to take charge of West Bengal in 34 years after a nine-party Left Front government had come to power led by Jyoti Basu in 1977.

Mamata, along with her allies, bagged majority of the seats in the state during its assembly election 2011. Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Congress managed to win 225 seats while Left was only able to hold 63 while others got 6 seats.

The huge guest list includes outgoing chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee who has been invited along with wife Meera, many other Left leaders, union home minister P Chidambaram, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and defence minister AK Antony. Surprisingly, the Left leaders will sit side by side with relatives of those killed in political clashes from Nandigram to Singur to Netai, sources said.

OneIndia News