Kolkata:
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee will meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi today to invite them for her swearing-in ceremony. They are also expected to hold discussions on government formation in West Bengal.
Ms Banerjee arrived in Delhi from Kolkata along with Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee late last night.
Setting the ball rolling over government formation, the Trinamool chief on Sunday announced that a small cabinet will be formed soon.
More significantly, she said that chief ally, the Congress, along with the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) will be part of the cabinet.
Ms Banerjee's announcement came after her meeting with senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday where she proposed that the Congress should join the new government in the state headed by her.
Elaborating further on her new team, Ms Banerjee said that senior party leader and close aide Partha Chaterjee will be the deputy leader of the Assembly.
"We want the honourable Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to be present on the day of our swearing-in. I will accompany Pranab Da to Delhi and invite them, and will decide on the date of swearing-in accordingly," Ms Banerjee had said after her meeting with Mr Mukherjee on Saturday.
A day before, she had dealt a crushing defeat to the Left Front in the state Assembly polls.
Emerging from the meeting with Mr Mukherjee at his south Kolkata residence, Mamata had told reporters, "We were a strong coalition and the Assembly election result is a testimony to that. We will remain a strong coalition to form a good government".
Sources have told NDTV that the Congress is keen to join the Bengal government headed by Mamata. Sources also said that when Mamata will resign as Railways Minister, Trinamool will retain the portfolio and party leader Mukul Roy will, in all likelihood, get the post.
After their meeting on Saturday, both Mamata and Pranab Mukherjee had said that they had a productive meeting.
"We discussed about the formation of state government in Bengal. We also discussed how the two political parties (Trinamool and Congress), under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, will create a new Bengal," Mr Mukherjee had said while addressing a joint briefing with Mamata Banerjee.
(With PTI Inputs)