West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she will not travel in an official bullet-proof car and will save as much public money as possible.
“I will not use the bullet-proof car. I don’t need it. I don’t want to spend so much public money for my security,” Banerjee told reporters.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief said she does not even own a car.
“I don’t have any car of my own. I use a car owned by my party,? she said.
Banerjee walked to conquer on Friday. She was accompanied by a sea of humanity in the historic walk.
After taking the oath as the first woman chief minister of West Bengal at the Raj Bhavan, she chose to walk her way to the Writers’ Buildings, the state secretariat from where she was once thrown out on January 7, 1993 for trying to meet the then chief minister Jyoti Basu with a handicapped rape victim.
On Friday, Mamata chose to throw open Writers’ Buildings almost to people, though creating a nightmare for the policemen on duty.
Earlier, the wheel of political fortune turned full circle on Friday when Mamata Banerjee finally took oath as the eleventh Chief Minister of West Bengal and gained control of Writers’ Buildings, the red-painted edifice of power in the heritage hub of Kolkata ending over 34 years’ communist rule.
The erstwhile rulers of West Bengal- former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee graced the swearing-in- watched the historic moments of West Bengal’s first woman chief minister Mamata Banerjee reading out the oath in chaste Bengali.
Her merry band of 43 ministers only followed their leader and took oath in Bengali.
Mamata was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor M K Narayanan on the southwest lawn of the 208-year-old the governor?s residence, the Raj Bhavan, at 1:01 pm on Friday.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram were among the many top leaders present on the occasion.
Besides Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Left Front chairman Biman Bose was also present, in a show of political courtesy that was long missing in the state.