Delhi Polls: Confident Arvind Kejriwal invites West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for swearing-in ceremony

If exit polls prove to be correct and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, Arvind Kejriwal, wins another term in the office of Chief Minister of Delhi, his West Bengal counterpart and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee is likely to come to the national capital to attend his swearing-in ceremony.

With all exit polls predicting a clear victory for the AAP, Kejriwal told Banerjee over the phone that he had no doubt about his party trouncing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to secure another five-year-term in power in the National Capital Territory. He also invited Trinamool Congress supremo to attend the ceremony, which will mark the beginning of his third tenure in the office of the Chief Minister of Delhi, sources told the DH in New Delhi on Monday.

Banerjee, according to the sources, conveyed to Kejriwal her willingness to attend the ceremony, of course if she does not have any other pressing engagement on the day the AAP chief would be sworn-in for his third term as Chief Minister of the National Capital Territory.

Kejriwal first took over as Chief Minister of Delhi on December 28, 2013, but resigned on February 14, 2014. He returned to the office on February 14, 2015, after leading the AAP to a landslide victory in the assembly elections. If the exit polls prove to be correct on Tuesday, he may soon take over as Chief Minister for the third term.

The Trinamool Congress supremo is the first Opposition leader whom the AAP chief had talks with over phone after polling for the assembly elections in Delhi concluded on Saturday. He may also call leaders of a few other opposition parties too and invite them to the swearing-in ceremony after the results are officially declared on Tuesday.

Among the political parties opposed to the BJP-led government at the Centre, the AAP and the Trinamool Congress have since long been closely aligned. Banerjee has been meeting Kejriwal during her visits to Delhi.

Banerjee has been a firebrand critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah and her party is struggling to stall the BJP's foray into West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress has been opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which the BJP-led Government brought into force in December 2019. She, however, has been cautiously avoiding to be seen closer to the Congress, even while fighting against the BJP.

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When Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Hemant Soren was sworn in as Chief Minister in Ranchi on December 30 last, Banerjee joined Rahul Gandhi of the Congress, Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), M K Stalin of the Dravida Munnethra Kazhagam (DMK), Tejashwi Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and several other leaders of the Opposition parties to attend the ceremony. She, however, neither attended, nor sent a representative of the Trinamool Congress to attend the meeting of the Opposition leaders convened by the Congress in New Delhi on January 13. No leader from the AAP also attended the meeting.

Most of the exit polls conducted on Saturday predicted that the AAP will win more than 50 seats in the 70-member-assembly in Delhi. Some of the exit polls predicted a lesser number of seats for the AAP, but none predicted a victory for the BJP, which, according to all, would finish a distant second. Almost all the exit polls predicted that the Congress would continue to remain irrelevant in the political scene of the National Capital Territory.

The BJP leaders, however, dismissed the exit polls predictions and claimed that the party, which leads the Union Government, was well in course to dislodge the AAP from power.