KOLKATA: Preparations for the swearing-in ceremony of Mamata Banerjee as the Chief Minister of the state for the third consecutive term were given final touches on Tuesday. The ceremony will be held on Wednesday with invitees from Opposition parties, Abhishek Banerjee, Prashant Kishor, and former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly, among others. Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar will conduct the oath of secrecy at Raj Bhavan at 10.45 am on Wednesday. Banerjee will be reaching the state Secretariat Nabanna directly from Raj Bhavan after the swearing-in ceremony. Opposition leaders like former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Left Front chairman Biman Bose, BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, Pradesh Congress president Adhir Chowdhury, and leader of BJP in the state Assembly Manoj Tigga have been invited to the ceremony. Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee and poll strategist Prashant Kishor have also been invited. Trinamool Congress leaders including Biman Banerjee, whose name has already been proposed for Speaker for the third consecutive term, and Subrata Mukherjee, who will be the pro-tem Speaker, Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee and the partys MP and actor Dev will also be present in the swearing-in ceremony. BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has also been invited to the ceremony, which will be a low-key affair due to the prevailing Covid situation. The scheduled time for Banerjees arrival at the state Secretariat is 11.30 am where she will be given the Guard of Honour by the Combat Battalion of the Kolkata Police. Dhritiman Sarkar, Deputy Commissioner of Police of Combat Battalion, will lead the guard of honour. Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay and Home Secretary HK Dwivedi along with the top brass of the state government will be present at the programme at Nabanna. An arrangement has also been made if she wants to address the small gathering after receiving the Guard of Honour at the VIP entry gate at Nabanna. As she had already announced that her first priority is to fight the Covid situation, Banerjee would be holding a series of meetings with the senior officials on the first day itself as the states Chief Minister for the third time after winning 213 seats in the high-voltage elections. She had been monitoring the Covid situation and held a series of meetings virtually even from districts before initiating her poll campaign to ensure that the situation does not worsen in Bengal. Senior officials including the Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, Director General of Police and Commissioner of Kolkata Police also went to her Kalighat residence on Tuesday afternoon for a courtesy visit.

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