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Kesri Nath Tripathi today sworn in as the 20th Governor of West Bengal today at a ceremony in Raj Bhavan here.
Seventy nine-year-old Tripathi, a senior BJP leader and three-term speaker of the Uttar Pradesh assembly was administered the oath of office by the acting Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Asim Kumar Banerjee. The swearing in ceremony was attended by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal assembly speaker Biman Banerjee and senior state ministers, senior BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh, state BJP president Rahul Sinha and several other ministers.
"I will work for the welfare of the state. I will coordinate with the Centre. We will solve matters by discussing it mutually. The chief minister is competent enough to deal with state matters," Tripathi said after the ceremony.
Tripathi had arrived in the city yesterday afternoon by the New Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani Express from Allahabad, which was rerouted following a blast on railway tracks by the naxalites between Mughalsarai and Gaya late Tuesday night.
Tripathi replaced M K Narayanan, who demitted office on July 4, days after being questioned by the CBI in connection with its probe into the Rs 3600-crore VVIP chopper deal. He was reportedly asked to quit by Narendra Modi government.
Since Naryanan's resignation Bihar Governor D Y Patil had taken over as Governor of West Bengal as an additional charge.
