Mamata elected TCLP leader, says Cong will join her ministry

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Kolkata, May 15 : Mamata Banerjee was today formally elected Trinamool Congress Legislature Party leader and said pre-poll ally Congress would be part of her "small" ministry.
Two days after her party stormed to power with three- fourths majority, ending 34 years of Left Front rule in West Bengal, the name of 56-year-old Banerjee as TCLP leader was proposed by Subrata Bakshi.
The formality of her election was completed at Maharashtra Niwas hall in south Kolkata where all the 184 newly-elected Trinamool Congress MLAs were present.
Addressing the meeting, Banerjee said she was happy that the Congress had submitted a letter of support to a Trinamool Congress-led ministry to Governor M K Narayanan.
"We will also submit a letter to the Governor (with the list of supporters)," she said.
She said that her ministry would be small in size and Congress and SUCI would take part in it.
SUCI, which won one seat, has been requested to join the ministry, she said. "SUCI has said it will let us know," she said.
Partha Chatterjee was elected deputy leader and Sobhandev Chattopadhyay Chief Whip. Jyotipriya Mullick was elected Treasurer.
Railway Minister Banerjee, who is a member of Lok Sabha from a Kolkata constituency, will have to get herself elected to the state Assembly within six months. She is likely to contest from a constituency in south Kolkata, TC sources said.