Mamata Banerjee takes oath as Chief Minister of West Bengal for second consecutive term

Mamata Banerjee was today sworn in as the Chief Minister of West Bengal for the second consecutive time, heading a 42-member ministry. 61-year-old Banerjee was administered oath of office and secrecy by state Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi at the sprawling Red Road. Her ministry has 18 new faces. 

The prominent Cabinet ministers who took oath along with Banerjee were Amit Mitra, Partha Chatterjee, Subrata Mukherjee, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Abani Joardar, Firhad Hakim, Arup Roy, Gautam Deb, Sovan Chatterjee, Javed Khan, Abdur Rezzak Mollah, Suvendu Adhikari, Jyotipriya Mullick, Purnendu Bose, Rabindra Nath Ghosh, Bratya Basu, Santiram Mahato, Ashis Banerjee, Arup Biswas.

The ministers of state who were sworn in, included cricketer Lakshmi Ratan Shukla and singer Indranil Sen. A galaxy of political leaders were present at the ceremony. Among them were Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar, RJD chief Lalu Prasad, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah and DMK leader Kanimozhi.

The 18 new faces in the council of ministers are Suvendu Adhikari, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Churamoni Mahato, Tapan Dasgupta, Asima Patra, Indranil Sen, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Shyamal Santra, Golam Rabbani, Siddikullah Chowdhury, Abdur Rezzak Mollah, Jakir Hossain, James Kujur, Rabindra Nath Ghosh, Sandhyarani Tudu, Abani Joardar, Bachchu Hansda and Sovan Chatterjee, who is also the Mayor of Kolkata. Trinamool Congress has won 211 out of the 294 seats in the West Bengal Assembly.