Kolkata: MLAs from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are likely to take oath to form the new government in West Bengal on May 9. The date has been chosen as it is Pochishe Boisakh, the birth anniversary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has indicated after the BJP’s landslide victory in West Bengal on Monday that the state will get a new beginning on Tagore’s birth anniversary.
The party’s state president Samik Bhattacharya too confirmed the date.
“The oath-taking ceremony of the new chief minister of West Bengal will take place on 9th May…” he told ANI.
Interestingly, the name of the chief minister to be has not been disclosed by the BJP’s top leadership. While Suvendu Adhikari, who emerged as the giant killer by defeating former CM Mamata Banerjee at her stronghold in Bhabanipur on Monday, is a frontrunner for the post, the BJP is known to throw up surprises.
On Monday, PM Modi had
invoked Tagore’s ideals while addressing party workers at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi, saying the BJP’s resolve is to create a Bengal “where the mind is without fear and the head is held high” – echoing the spirit of the poet’s timeless vision.
Senior Election Commission of India officials — principal secretary S B Joshi and secretary Sujit Kumar Mishra — reached Kolkata on Tuesday to hand over the official gazette notification of the election results to Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal.
The CEO is then expected to formally brief Governor R N Ravi on May 6, after which the Governor will invite outgoing chief minister Mamata Banerjee to offer her resignation as per Constitutional protocol. Following this, the Governor is expected to request Mamata Banerjee to continue as caretaker chief minister until the new government is sworn in, thereby ensuring seamless administrative continuity in the state, as reported by NDTV.
Rabindra Jayanti is celebrated on Pochishe Boisakh with immense reverence across the state. The day is far more than a birthday; it is a homage to the man who have the country its national anthem and much more.
The swearing-in ceremony promises to be a landmark event with the BJP finally being able to form a government in the state of its founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee.