Mamata Banerjee was sworn in on Friday as West Bengal's chief minister for a second term, in the biggest oath ceremony Bengal has seen. 41 ministers took oath after her in batches of four, some touched her feet to seek blessings. The front-row presence of Chief Ministers Arvind Kejriwal, Akhilesh Yadav and Nitish Kumar spurred talk of a new anti-BJP 'federal front', a bloc of regional powerhouses that could challenge the BJP and the Congress in the 2019 national elections.
