Kolkata: Outgoing West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has accepted his successor Mamata Bannerjee's invitation to attend her swearing-in ceremony in Kolkata tomorrow.
Mamata had sent senior Trinamool leader Partha Chatterjee to Mr Bhattacharjee's residence to deliver the invitation letter. The Left front has already confirmed that its representatives would be present at the swearing-in.
Mr Bhattacharjee is Mamata Banerjee's arch rival. Their ugly verbal spats have often made headlines. But after her historic win in the state Assembly polls, Mamata seems keen to put all of that behind her.
Buddhadeb-led CPM ruled for 34 continuous years in West Bengal. But in the recently concluded Assembly polls, the party faced a rout at the hands of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress. Nearly all its ministers, including former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, lost the elections.
Mamata Banerjee had personally invited both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi for her swearing-in ceremony.
However, Home Minister P Chidambaram will represent the Congress at the function along with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. Dr Singh had expressed his inability to attend the function in view of a foreign tour.
