All India Trinamool Congress Chief was sworn in as West Bengal’s chief minister on Friday, after her party registered a resounding victory in the recently concluded Assembly polls. The incumbent TMC won 211 out of the state’s 294 seats, while the unlikely alliance of the Congress and the Left failed to make much of an impact, getting just 75 seats. This will be Banerjee's second term as chief minister.
Banerjee’s cabinet was also inducted at the event. It comprises 41 other members, according to a list she submitted to Governor KN Tripathi. Among the 17 new faces in her ministry are Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, former Indian cricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla and singer Indranil Sen, The Indian Express reported. “All castes, religions and districts, except Malda, will get representation. In Malda, we don’t have any representation. Out of the 42, there are a few new faces. The rest are the same,” she said.
Extensive security arrangements were made for the ceremony on Kolkata’s arterial Red Road, which was closed for five days in preparation for the event. At least 1,000 policemen were deployed in the area for the ceremony, where more than 140 VVIPs were expected to attend, according to The Economic Times.
Among the VVIPs are Union ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. Industrialist Mukesh Ambani and Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan were expected to attend the event.
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