Firebrand Indian politician Mamata Banerjee was sworn in on Friday as first women chief minister of India's West Bengal state after she ended 34 years of communist rule with an historic election victory last week.
Banerjee, 56, took the oath of office after voters in the impoverished eastern state turfed out the world's longest-serving democratically-elected Marxist government.
Before leaving her modest one-storey home for the ceremony, Banerjee, wearing a plain blue-bordered white
cotton sari, thanked the cheering crowd for their support.
'I will work day and night,' Banerjee, who heads the regional Trinamool Congress, told jubilant fans.
Thousands of people lined the streets shouting, 'We are with you didi' as she arrived at the sprawling governor's residence in the state capital Kolkata.
Banerjee, who casts herself as a champion of the poor, rode a wave of popular discontent to defeat the communists over their economic management, which left industry in decline and the state neck-deep in debt.
A key ally of the national ruling Congress party, she is the first woman to become the chief minister of West Bengal, a state of 90 million people.
Mamata had sent a personal invitation to the immediate-past chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee , who was present in the swearing in ceremony. Union home minister P Chidambaram, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and defence minister A K Antony were present among about 3,200 guests.
After the swearing-in, conducted in Bengali, she walked to the historic state government headquarters, known as the Writers' Building, surrounded by a sea of people.
Banerjee's Trinamool Congress and allies grabbed 226 of the legislature's 294 seats, leaving just 62 for the Marxists, effectively consigning them to the political wilderness.
Banerjee, known for her mercurial nature, resigned from her job as national railways minister late on Thursday to take up her new responsibilities.
The populist leader, whose party holds the balance of power in the federal parliament, is now expected to play a more prominent role on the national stage and could be a roadblock in the Congress government's economic reform plans.
Source: New Age
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