Congress president Sonia Gandhi will not be attending the swearing-in of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as West Bengal Chief Minister in Kolkata on Friday.
Instead, Home minister P Chidambaram will represent the Congress at the function along with Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said tonight.
Dwivedi said Defence minister A K Antony and Congress Working Committee member Shakeel Ahmed, who is in-charge of party affairs in West Bengal will go to Kolkata tomorrow to attend the meeting of Congress Legislature Party as central observers from the party.
Antony may also stay back for the swearing in ceremony. Sources said the decision on the issue of Congress' participation in the Mamata-led government will be taken in the CLP meeting tomorrow, adding indications are positive.
Soon after her landslide victory, Banerjee, who is also railway minister, had called on Gandhi and also Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to invite them to the swearing-in ceremony.
Singh had expressed his inability to attend the function in view of a foreign tour.
