Mamata Banerjee to attend Hemant Soren's swearing-in ceremony

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee would be among the host of opposition leaders slated to attend the December 29 swearing-in ceremony of Hemant Soren as Jharkhand chief minister in Ranchi, sources close to her said.

Banerjee`s previously scheduled march in North Bengal`s Siliguri on December 30 has been postponed to early next month.

A Trinamool Congress leader said that Soren had attended the public meeting of opposition leaders convened by Banerjee at the Brigade Parade ground in January.

Banerjee shares a good rapport with Soren, a young leader who has been a vocal critic of the BJP-led NDA government.

With the swearing-in coming in the backdrop of the intense protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the Trinamool leadership feels that the presence of Banerjee and other top leaders of the opposition parties would give a message of unity, a proposal that she gave in a recent letter to the non-bjp chief ministers and party leaders.