Mamata Banerjee's oath-taking ceremony on May 5, CM to meet Bengal Governor today

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New Delhi: The swearing-in ceremony of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will take place on May 5, i.e. on Wednesday. A day later, on May 6, all council of ministers will be sworn in by Protem speaker Subrata Mukherjee. Later, Biman Banerjee will hold the post of the Speaker.

Mamata Banerjee said that she would meet Bengal Governor Jagdish Dhankar at 7 pm on Monday and her party would take a call on the oath-taking and Cabinet formation in the evening. A day after the vote counting, the Bengal Chief Minister addressed a press meeting where she demanded a forensic examination into the Nandigram vote counting incident. Accusing the Election Commission of working at the behest of BJP, Mamata questioned that why did the poll panel not give permission for a recounting of votes in Nandigram.

Furthermore, Mamata claimed that the Returning Officer of Nandigram disclosed that recounting order could have led to his life risk. Requesting her supporters to maintain peace amid reports of violence, the Trinamool Supremo accused the BJP of harassing her and her party even after the results were declared. She also stated that this was the first time the Prime Minister did not call her on winning the Bengal assembly election.  

Trinamool Congress sweeps Bengal assembly elections with 213 seats

The Trinamool Congress romped home in West Bengal, pocketing 213 of the 292 assembly seats that went to polls and secured a third straight term in office, according to the final results announced by the Election Commission. The Mamata Banerjee-led party's main challenger, the BJP, bagged 77 seats, while the ISF, which contested with the symbol of the Rashtriya Secular Majlis Party, and an Independent, managed one seat each. The Trinamool had clinched 211 seats in 2016.

Elections were held in 292 constituencies of the 294- member assembly. Polling was countermanded in two constituencies Jangipur and Samsergan after candidates fell victim to a raging COVID-19 pandemic.

The mercurial Banerjee, however, lost by 1,956 votes in Nandigram to former protege-turned-BJP adversary Suvendu Adhikari.

Apart from Adhikari, TMC turncoats Rajib Banerjee, Rudranil Ghosh, Baishali Dalmiya, Shilbhadra Dutta and Sabyasachi Dutta faced defeat.

Prominent Left Front candidates Ashok Bhattacharya, Mohammed Salim and Sujan Chakraborty along with Congress' Abdul Mannan and Manoj Chakraborty also ended up on the losing side.

BJP fails to cross double-digit in Bengal 

Though BJP MPs Jagannath Sarkar and Nishit Pramanik won from Shantipur and Dinhata, respectively, other senior party leaders like Locket Chatterjee, Swapan Dasgupta and Babul Supriyo could not emerge triumphant.