Hundreds of TMC followers thronged the KMC building to be a witness to the “historic victory” — regarded by many as the semi-finals before the 2011 Assembly elections. Chaos prevailed inside and out of the Mayor’s room, as INTUC members, carrying Trinamool flags, went about cheering and shouting slogans and the media jostled for space. So great was the pandemonium, that Trinamool Congress councillers Atin Ghosh and Sanchita Mondal were almost knocked down by the over-enthusiastic crowd.

“We have never seen this kind of indiscipline inside this building,” Leader of Opposition Rupa Bagchi was quick to point out. “There was absolutely no control.”

Amid the pandemonium, Chatterjee was sworn in as the 37th Mayor in the Council Chamber of the corporation building. Sachhidananda Banerjee and Farzana Ahmed were sworn in as the Chairman and Deputy Mayor. The ceremony was conducted by Anil Mukherjee, Pro-tem Speaker and councillor from Ward number 71.

The new mayor announced the names of the 10 new members of the Mayor-in-Council. They include Firhad (Bobby) Hakim, Debabrata Majumdar, Rajib Deb, Sashi Panja, Partha Pratim Hazari, Atin Ghosh, Manjar Iqbal, Debashish Kumar, Sanchita Mondal and Shamsuddin Jamaal Iqbal.

Everything went well throughout the ceremony, except a faux pas by the mayor at the fag end — with the announcement that the day was “Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das’ birthday, let us all sing the national anthem in his honour”. When the national anthem begun playing, he burst out with “Sorry! Today is his 85th death anniversary!”

“All of us from the Left Front have been especially hurt by the insult if the national anthem that happened in today’s programme,” commented Rupa Bagchi later.

In his speech, the mayor underlined the biggest challenge the corporation is facing. “I have been associated with the KMC for the last 25 years, holding various posts,” he said. “I know water supply is the greatest problem the KMC has to deal with. We will try to provide 40 to 50 litres of water per head.”

Even so, there will be no water tax for the middle class and lower middle class citizens, he said. “The Left Front-run Municipal Board had imposed unlimited taxes. The Unit Area Tax Assessment Bill has been passed on

April 10. Now, taxes will be much more simplified.”

Reiterating Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee’s dream of transforming Kolkata into London, Chatterjee said: “Beautification of the city, especially the banks of the Ganga is one of our priorities. We will transform Kolkata into a city of international standards, so tourists become interested.”