Mamata Banerjee to take oath as West Bengal CM for third term on May 5

Trinamool Congress Supremo Mamata Banerjee will be sworn in as the chief minister of West Bengal for the third consecutive term on May 5, her party announced on Monday.

She was unanimously elected as the leader of the TMC Legislative Council at a party meeting in Kolkata on Monday. Banerjee will take oath as Chief Minister at 10:45 am on Wednesday at Raj Bhavan. The function will be a low-key affair with a limited audience, due to the current COVID-19 situation.

Trinamool legislators have elected the speaker in the outgoing House, Biman Banerjee, as the pro-term speaker in the new Assembly. "The newly-elected members will take oath in the Assembly from May 6," Partha Chatterjee told reporters at the party headquarters in Kolkata after the meeting of the legislators. 

Mamata Banerjee met state Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday to stake claim to form the next government, after her party's landslide victory in the assembly elections.

TMC sweeps West Bengal election

The ruling TMC has won 212 of the 292 seats in Bengal, where polling was held in eight phases from March to April. Its contender BJP emerged as the main opposition party with 77 seats under its belt. For the second time, Mamata Banerjee has powered her party to a two-thirds majority in the state assembly. A blight on her party's stupendous victory was her own personal loss to Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram.