Kolkata: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was on Thursday sworn in as Chief Minister of the seventh Left Front government in West Bengal.
He was administered the oath of office and secrecy by the Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi at a colourful ceremony at the sprawling lawn of the Raj Bhavan.
Bhattacharjee, who steered the CPI (M)-led Left Front to a resounding victory in the state, was sworn-in for a second consecutive term.
The Left Front Committee has announced a 44-member Council of Ministers. Most of the ministers, including Bhattacharjee took the oath in Bengali, while minister of state Debalina Hembram, a tribal, took the oath in Santhali and Monohar Tirkey another minister of state, in Hindi.
Among the 33 cabinet ministers, Commerce and Industry minister Nirupam Sen was the second to take the oath followed by Surya Kanta Mishra (Health), Gautam Dev (Housing), Ashim Dasgupta (Finance) and Subhas Chakraborty (Transport, Youth Affairs and Sports).
There are 17 new faces in the ministry. The main opposition Trinamool Congress boycotted the swearing-in ceremony. The Congress however attended the programme.
Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, party politburo member Sitaram Yechuri, Brinda Karat and former chief minister Jyoti Basu were among those present at the programme.
Cricketer Saurav Ganguly and the city's intelligensia were present in strength. Among the industrialists present were Venugpal Dhoot of Videocon, R P Goenka, chairman emiratus of the RPG group, P K Ruia, chairman of the Ruia group and Harsh Neotia, chairman of the Bengal Ambuja.
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