By IANS,
Kolkata: People burst firecrackers and threw green gulal in the air outside Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s residence in celebration Friday as the party wrested power from the 34-year old Left Front government in West Bengal in a landslide election victory.
Thousands of people thronged Banerjee’s residence to have a glimpse of the state’s first woman chief minister in waiting.
The security officials had a harrowing time controlling the crowd. Police had put up barricades and kept a watch on visitors, which included an army of mediapersons from India and abroad.
Every nook and corner of Kalighant locality where Banerjee lives was decorated with life-sized cutouts of the party chief and the party symbol.
The whole place turned green as Trinamool supporters showered green ‘gulaal’, coloured powder, on each other and offered sweets. A few even broke into tears of joy as news spread that “didi” (elder sister) as Banerjee is fondly called would become the next chief minister.
Fire crackers illuminated the night sky as people went on a celebration spree.
As evening progressed Harish Chatterjee Street turned out like a shrine with supporters unable to get a glimpse of Banerjee touching in reverence the road leading to her one-storey building.
The mood became more festive as the news of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee tendering his resignation reached Kalighat.
The “red fort” crumbled under the “parivartan” (change) slogan that saw the Trinamool-Congress-Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) combine canterint to a two-thirds majority leaving the Left, spearheaded by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), way behind.
There were unending chants of “Maa Mati Manush” (Mother, Soil, People) – Banerjee’s pet slogan.
A large temporary kitchen was erected to serve food to the hundreds of party supporters and locals thronging Harish Chatterjee Street.
“We will continue the celebrations through the night. We will continue celebrating until ‘didi’ takes oath as chief minister,” said Pankaj, a Trinamool Congress supporter in his mid twenties.