WB: Left to take charge on May 18

Kolkata: The new seventh Left Front Ministry in West Bengal will take oath of office and secrecy on May 18, Chief Secretary Amit Kiran Deb said on Friday.

"Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee is leaving for New Delhi this evening to participate in the two-day CPI(M) politburo meeting where he, along with other senior leaders of the party, would discuss and finalise the size of the new Ministry," the Chief Secretary said.

He said the new ministry would be sworn in by Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi at a function in Raj Bhavan on Thursday from 1100 hrs (IST), after the expiry of the term of the present Cabinet on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the ruling coalition partners unanimously chose Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as the natural choice for Chief Minister of its seventh successive government and decided to finalise the names of ministers by May 14.

A front meeting, held a day after the election results were out, unanimously accepted the proposal for retaining Bhattacharjee as the Chief Minister for another term.

Front chairman Biman Basu said the names of those to be inducted in the ministry would be decided in separate bilateral meetings among the Front partners on Sunday.

The process would be followed by the oath taking of the newly-elected legislators early next week after the Election Commission issues a notification in this regard.

"Under the statutory provision, the EC issues the notification within seven days after announcement of the election results. We are expecting in the next few days," he said.

Before the swearing-in ceremony, the chief minister, however, would talk to the governor and go through certain administrative measures for election of a protem Speaker, who will administer the oath of office to the newly-elected members, Basu said.

Replying to a question, he denied that the meeting had discussed any name of a possible minister.

He said following the oath-taking ceremony, all the Left MLAs would be called in a meeting to decide the leader of the legislature party.

Basu said the Left Front had secured 50.24 per cent vote in the Assembly election which was third highest since the coalition government was formed in 1977.

The highest percentage of vote the Front secured was 52.96 per cent in 1982 when it cornered 252 out of then 296 Assembly seats.