Mamata To Meet Sonia Gandhi, PM Today To Invite Them For Swearing-In Ceremony

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday invited its ally, the Congress, to join the new government in West Bengal. A day before, she dealt a crushing defeat to the Left Front in the state Assembly polls.

Ms Banerjee met senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee at his south Kolkata residence on Saturday and proposed that the Congress should join the ministry to be headed by her.

Emerging from the meeting, Mamata 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".

Mamata will to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Capital later today and will invite them for the swearing-in ceremony of the first 'non-Left government' in Kolkata in almost three decades.

"We want 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," Mamata said after her meeting with Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday.

Though there is no clear answer to Mamata's offer to the Congress yet, both Mamata and Pranab Mukherjee said that they had a productive meeting.

"Today, 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 said while addressing a joint briefing with Mamata Banerjee. (With PTI Inputs)

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