Kolkata, July 24 : Veteran BJP leader Kesri Nath Tripathi was Thursday sworn in as the new governor of West Bengal at a ceremony in the Raj Bhavan here.
Acting Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Asim Kumar Banerjee administered the oath of office to the 79-year-old Tripathi in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee and senior ministers Partha Chatterjee, Amit Mitra and Firhad Hakim.
Senior bureaucrats, armed forces officers, police officers, members of the diplomatic corps and other eminent guests attended the brief function. Bharatiya Janata Party co-in-charge for West Bengal Siddharth Nath Singh and party's state unit chief Rahul Sinha attended during the swearing-in, but leaders of Left Front and the Congress were missing.
Interacting with media persons, Kesri -- a five-team member and three-time speaker of the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly -- said he would work for the welfare of the state and coordinate with the central government.
Asked whether he foresaw any conflict with the state government during his gubernatorial stint, Tripathi, who is also a former president of BJP's Uttar Pradesh unit, said: "We will solve matters mutually through discussions. The chief minister is competent enough to deal with state matters." Bihar Governor D.Y. Patil had been holding additional charge of West Bengal after previous incumbent M.K. Narayanan resigned earlier this month.
Born Nov 10, 1934 in Allahabad, of Uttar Pradesh, Tripathi served as Uttar Pradesh assembly speaker during 1991-1993, 1997-2002 and from May 2002 to March 2004.
He held the portfolio of institutional finance and sales tax during the Janata Party regime in Uttar Pradesh from 1977 to 1979.
A lawyer by profession, Tripathi is also an author and a poet. His chief literary works are two anthologies "Manonukriti" and "Aayu Pankh".
