Thaindian News

Kolkata, May 19 (IANS) Left Front leaders, including outgoing chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Front chairman Biman Basu will Friday attend the oath taking ceremony of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as the next West Bengal chief minister.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) sources Thursday said Bose and Bhattacharjee will attend the swearing-in ceremony at the Raj Bhavan.

Earlier in the day, Trinamool’s deputy leader in the assembly Partha Chatterjee went to Bhattacharjee’s South Kolkata residence to personally invite him on the occasion.

Meanwhile, Trinamool leader and union minister Mukul Roy met Communist Party of India (CPI) state secretary Manju Kumar Majumdar to invite him.

“I will attend the oath taking ceremony of Mamata Banerjee. This morning Mukul Roy visited me and requested me to join the ceremony,” Majumdar told IANS.

The swearing-in ceremony of Banerjee as the state’s first woman chief minister will be held at 1 p.m. with the Who’s Who of politics, business, art and culture in attendance.

Roy also visited Forward Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh at his office and requested him to attend the oath-taking ceremony.

“Mukul Roy invited Ashokda for the ceremony. But Ashokda doesn’t attend any government ceremony so I and Barun Mukherjee will attend the program,” party leader Naren Chatterjee told IANS.

Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader and former minister Kshiti Goswami also confirmed that he will attend the oath-taking ceremony.

“I will attend the oath-taking ceremony. It was earlier decided in the Left Front meeting only that a delegation will attend the swearing-in,” Goswami said.

The Trinamool and Congress alliance swept the assembly polls by decimating the 34-year old Left Front government in the state by winning 227 seats out of 294.

For the last two years, the state has gone through a phase of “total non-cooperation” between the Left Front and the opposition Trinamool Congress, who did not see eye to eye.