Mamata takes oath as Bengal CM for 3rd consecutive term

Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee took oath as Chief Minister of West Bengal for the third time on Wednesday, 5 May, at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata.

The TMC, led by Banerjee, won 213 seats in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came in at second place in the elections with 77 seats.

Banerjee is presently the only woman Chief Minister in the country, and is also the only woman Chief Minister to be elected three times in a row.

The ceremony was a small one due to the pandemic, with COVID-19 protocols in place.

The guest list for the oath-taking ceremony, which was delivered by Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, included senior TMC leaders like Abhishek Banerjee, Subrata Mukherjee, Subrata Bakshi, Partha Chatterjee, Aroop Biswas, Shatabdi Ray, amongst others.

That apart, former cricketer Sourav Ganguly, former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, and West Bengal Congress Chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury were also invited. Bhattacharya gave the event a miss due to ill health. Ganguly and Chowdhury were also not seen at the event.

Poll strategist, Prashant Kishor, who steered the TMC to victory as campaign strategist, was also present at the event.

Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh was also invited, but stayed away from the event as protest against the "political violence unleashed by the TMC" after the election results.

"I thank the Maa, Maati, Manush family. A lot of people across the world were looking at Bengal elections with hope, I thank them too. Our first priority will be COVID-19 management. Secondly, I'd ask all political parties to maintain peace and harmony. Bengal does not like violence. Please take care that nothing goes wrong anywhere. I'm taking up law and order from today and will deal with this strongly", said Banerjee after taking the oath.

Source: The Quint