While all the State Opposition parties including the left, Congress and the BJP have decided to boycott the oath-taking, about 6,000 guests, including a galaxy of VVIPs will grace Mamata Banerjee’s second swearing-in on Friday.
Among those invited and likely to be present on the day are Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, his Ministerial colleague Babul Supriyo, Chief Ministers of Bihar, UP and Delhi, Nitish Kumar, Akhilesh Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal, RJD chief laloo Yadav, former Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, State secretariat sources at Nabanna said adding there was no report yet of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s presence on the occasion.
Among the celebrities who are likely to remain present during the occasion are superstars Amitabh Bacchan and Shahrukh Khan apart from a host of Bangla cine stars. Meanwhile, the CPI(M), Congress and the State BJP have decided to boycott the programme to protest against the ongoing political violence in the State. The BJP has decided to observe he day as a Black Day while the left and the Congress will stage a sit in demonstration at Esplanade about a mile away from the swearing-in site at Red Road.
The Trinamool Congress on May 19 roared back to power with a thumping majority of 211 out of 294 seats. The Congress got 44 seats while the left got 33. The BJP and the others won three seats each.