Kolkata: Poriborton (change) has come to Bengal. On Friday, minutes after 1 in the afternoon, Mamata Banerjee took oath to become the first woman Chief Minister of West Bengal.
It was a historic moment for the state and personally, one that the diminutive giant-slayer has waited for all her life. Mamata took oath in Bengali marking a change of guard that will see the end of 34 years of uninterrupted rule by the CPI(M)-led Left Front.
Among the several thousands present was former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Mamata had sent a personal invitation to him yesterday. Also there were Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister AK Antony.
The Mamata Banerjee ministry has 43 members apart from her. Of these 36 are Trinamool Congress members, and there will be seven Congress ministers. The ministers are now taking oath.
The Trinamool Congress list of ministers include Amit Mitra, Partha Chatterjee, Manish Gupta, Subrata Mukherjee, Abdul Karim Chowdhury, Sadhan Pandey, Upen Biswas, Sabitri Mitra, Bratya Basu, Madan Mitra and Noore Alam Chowdhury.