KOLKATA — Bharatiya Janata Party leader Suvendu Adhikari was sworn in as chief minister of West Bengal on Saturday, with five ministers taking the oath alongside him on the same stage, according to the report.
The ceremony was held at Kolkata’s historic Brigade Parade Ground. Governor R.N. Ravi administered the oath to Adhikari shortly after 11:30 a.m. local time. With it, the BJP formed a government in West Bengal for the first time.
After the chief minister, the ministers were sworn in one by one. They are BJP legislators Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Ashok Kirtaniya, Nisith Pramanik and Khudiram Tudu.
In the assembly election, Adhikari won from Bhabanipur and Nandigram. Ghosh won from Kharagpur Sadar. Paul won from Asansol South, Kirtaniya from Bangaon North, Tudu from Ranibandh in Bankura, and Pramanik from Mathabhanga in Cooch Behar. Tudu took the oath in Santali; the chief minister and others took it in Bengali. The portfolios of the five ministers have not yet been announced.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the swearing-in of the new West Bengal cabinet. Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah, BJP national president Nitin Nabin, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and J.P. Nadda were seen on the stage. After the oath, Modi greeted Adhikari, the report said.
Chief ministers of several states attended, including Yogi Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh, Devendra Fadnavis of Maharashtra, Himanta Biswa Sarma of Assam, Manik Saha of Tripura, Rekha Gupta of Delhi, Samrat Choudhary of Bihar and Pushkar Singh Dhami of Uttarakhand.
Also present were former Union minister Smriti Irani, BJP West Bengal state president Shamik Bhattacharya, actor Mithun Chakraborty, and senior leaders of the central and state BJP. Many prominent figures from Kolkata and across the country attended the ceremony, along with BJP workers from every district in the state.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report