Mamata Banerjee takes oath as West Bengal CM with 41-member team

A 41-member council of ministers took the oath of office along with Mamata. She later held her first cabinet meeting at Nabanna, where she was given an unprecedented guard of honour by Kolkata Police.

Among the new entrants in the ministry were singer Indranil Sen, cricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla, dissident Marxist leader Adbur Razzak Molla, powerful Muslim leader Siddiqullah Chowdhury and a couple of former IPS officers.

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While no big announcements were made at the ceremony, a special resolution was adopted at the first cabinet meet where the government renewed its pledge to offer good governance to the people, enhance social sector schemes, create job opportunities for the young and provide a flourishing environment for all communities.

The day was a tightrope walk for Mamata, with a host of national leaders, including Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Babul Supriyo of the BJP turning up to attend the ceremony. RJD’s Lalu Prasad and NC’s Farooq Abdullah were also present. Among the chief ministers who attended the event were Bihar’s Nitish Kumar, Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal and Uttar Pradesh’s Akhilesh Yadav.

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While Nitish appreciated the trust the people had reposed in Mamata’s leadership, Lalu interpreted her victory as one against the BJP and “sanghis”. He also underlined the need for the federal partners to sit together and devise a strategy to counter the saffron brigade “out to destroy the secular fabric of the country”.

Farooq Abdullah felt there were a number of leaders who could lead a federal front or any other front against the BJP and Mamata was certainly one of them.

However, after the swearing-in ceremony, Jaitley told mediapersons that “federal fronts are a tried, tested and failed idea”. He added that so far, all federal front initiatives have failed because of the narrow support base of the parties that wanted to lead it. “Anyone thinking of a third front must have a national presence,” he asserted.

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Asked about Trinamool Congress spokesperson Derek O’Brien’s remarks that for Mamata, Delhi was now just a two-hour journey, Jaitley said: “Well, some journeys can be very bumpy even if it is only for two hours. I do not think such bumpy rides are welcome.”

Later, at Nabanna, when Mamata was asked about federal front initiatives, she said: “This is not the day to discuss such matters. This is a day to celebrate. I invited everyone, some came, some did not. But of course, there should be more meetings of chief ministers, as they face similar circumstances, problems and financial stress. Political get- togethers are a good idea.”

Eighteen of the 41 ministers sworn in on Friday were new faces. Only three women ministers, excluding Mamata, were sworn in.