Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee on Friday highlighted religious coexistence by invoking God as Ishwar and Allah to begin her second stint as the chief minister of West Bengal.

Ishwar is the term Hindus and Christians use for God while Muslims use Allah.

Some 30,000 people attended the swearing-in ceremony at the Red Road in Kolkata, capital of the eastern Indian state.

Clad in a white saree, Mamata used Bengali, the state language, for the biggest oath ceremony Bengal has seen so far.

She heads a cabinet of 41 ministers, including 17 new members.

The Red Road, an arterial road in the City of Joy, was closed for traffic for the past few days to prepare it for the gala ceremony. A giant air conditioned stage was put up along with a huge VVIP gallery for the dignitaries attending the event. The road sported massive cut outs of Mamata.

Bollywood stars such as Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan attended the function, along with a galaxy of political heavyweights.

Federal ministers Arun Jaitley and Babul Supriyo, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his coalition partner Lalu Prasad, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his Delhi colleague Arvind Kejriwal, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah attended the function.

Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay was also present for the function.

Bangladesh was represented by Industries minister and senior leader of the ruling Awami League Amir Hossain Amu. The neighboring that shares the same language with Bengal sent a special jamdani sari, 20 kg hilsha fish and molasses for the new Bengal chief minister.

However, they were a few absentees.

The Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which heads the federal coalition government, boycotted Mamata’s oath taking ceremony alleging post-poll violence in the state.

The Congress and Left, who fought the Assembly polls together, also refused to attend the function.

The day began with Banerjee tweeting about a “new beginning” for the people of Bengal and thanked all ministers and chief ministers for attending the ceremony.

The presence of leaders such as Nitish Kumar, Arvind Kejriwal and Akhilesh Yadav is being seen as a new beginning of a third front of regional powerhouses to challenge the BJP and the Congress in the 2019 national election.

After her win last week, Mamata Banerjee hinted at future political realignments at the national level when she talked about “friends I can work with,” listing among them the leaders attending her oath ceremony, others like J Jayalalithaa and Mayawati, and also BJP allies like Chandrababu Naidu.

“No third front, second front. If at all this is a first front,” said Derek O’Brien of Banerjee’s party.

Muslims for 27 percent of Bengal’s more than 92 million people. Muslims are majority in Maldah and Murshidabad districts.

Christians form 0.72 percent of the population.