West Bengal Assembly election: Mamata to move court over Nandigram result

To take oath on May 5; Centre seeks report from Bengal on post-poll violence

After leading her party to a stunning victory in West Bengal, Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, was unanimously elected leader of the Trinamool Congress legislative party on Monday and will take oath on May 5.
 
Senior leader Partha Chatterjee said that Banerjee would take oath on May 5 and the newly elected MLAs would be sworn in on May 6.
 
Banerjee met Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar in the evening. The governor later tweeted: taking note of communication @AITCOfficial electing @MamataOfficial as leader of 17th Legislative Assembly have invited her to take oath of office of Chief Minister on May 5 at 10:45am at Raj Bhawan. In view of current Covid situation function will be with limited audience.

 

Banerjee lost her seat — Nandigram — to her former protégé turned adversary, Suvendu Adhikari by 1,956 votes and would have to get re-elected in six months.
 
On Nandigram results, she said on Monday, “How can the Election Commission reverse the decision after announcing it. We will move court.”
 
She said that the returning officer messaged someone that if he allowed recounting in Nandigram then his life would be in danger.
 
However, Banerjee said that the oath-taking ceremony would be low-key in the view of the pandemic.
 
Banerjee’s swearing-in of 2016 was anything but that, with politicians across party lines in attendance – from Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, National Conference's Farooq Abdullah and RJD's Lalu Prasad. Arun Jaitley, then Union Finance Minister, and Babul Supriyo, then Union Minister of State for Urban Development, were also there.  This time, too, Banerjee was congratulated by several political leaders like – Maharashtra Chief Minister, Uddhav Thackeray, Punjab Chief Minister, Amrinder Singh, apart from Arvind Kejriwal and Akhilesh Yadav.

 
But Banerjee is not yet chalking out plans for the general elections of 2024. “I am just a street fighter. I can boost up people so that we can fight against BJP. But one person can’t do everything alone. I think all together we can fight the battle for 2024. But let’s fight Covid first,” she said in response to questions around the elections of 2024.
 
She has made Covid management her immediate priority. Banerjee said that she had already asked for 3 crore doses from the Centre – 1 crore for the private sector and the balance for the state on payment basis. However, she added that the central government should consider giving vaccines for free.  “We are requesting the Centre to sanction ~30,000 crore for universal vaccination.”

 
Banerjee also appealed to everyone to maintain peace as post-poll violence was reported in many parts of Bengal. The MHA (ministry of home affairs) has asked West Bengal government for a report on post-election violence targeting opposition political workers in the state, tweeted spokesperson, MHA.
 
West Bengal was in the throes of widespread violence on Monday that allegedly left several BJP workers dead and injured in clashes, and shops being looted, prompting the Union Home ministry to seek a factual report from the state governent on incidents of attack on opposition workers.
 
BJP claimed at least six of its workers and supporters, including a woman, were killed in attacks the party blamed on the TMC.

 
Stalin to chair DMK MLAs meeting today
 
The DMK on Monday announced convening a meeting of the party's newly elected MLAs on May 4, where party chief M K Stalin is likely to be elected their Legislature Party Leader.
 
The DMK chief, who led his party to a comfortable win against the ruling AIADMK after a ten-year stint in the opposition, is now set to take over as Chief Minister.
 
Date of swearing-in of new LDF govt soon
 
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said a date on the swearing-in of the new LDF cabinet and proposed new faces would be decided after a meeting of the Left front.

 
BJP to send central observers to Assam
 
The BJP is likely to finalise its choice of chief ministerial nominee for Assam in a day or two as internal consultation within the party has begun amid a suspense over whether it will continue with incumbent CM Sarbananda Sonowal or bring in a new face.