Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to chair a meeting of Trinamul Congress’s 134 newly elected councillors of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation at Maharashtra Niwas here from 3pm on Thursday to pick the people to occupy the three key posts of the civic body.

Although, on paper, it is the councillors who would pick the mayor, the deputy mayor and the chairperson, they are certain to throw their weight behind the names suggested by the chief minister. The members of the next mayoral council are also likely to be chosen at the meeting.

This is the first time since Trinamul’s formation that the party went to the CMC polls without clarity on who the mayor would be. Ahead of the terms of the deceased Subrata Mukherjee or the estranged Sovan Chatterjee, there was no suspense over the mayoral face.

“That is why there is so much interest in this exercise this time,” said a Trinamul vice-president.

Whom Mamata would pick for the three top posts this time has been the subject of intense speculation for months, especially against the backdrop of recommendations for sweeping changes by Trinamul-hired poll consultant Prashant Kishor, purportedly endorsed by the party’s national general-secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

However, since Mamata’s retention of 87 outgoing councillors in the list of candidates on November 26, the likelihood of Firhad Hakim and Atin Ghosh being named for two of the posts is deemed a foregone conclusion.

Besides those of former mayor Hakim and former deputy mayor Ghosh, the third name in conjecture has been that of Calcutta South MP Mala Roy, a councillor since 1995 and a former chairperson of the body.

“There are recommendations from Team PK, with backing from Abhishek, to bring changes at the top, but whether she accepts them will not be clear before 3pm tomorrow (Thursday),” said a senior Trinamul MP.

“Unless she (Mamata) springs a last-minute surprise, Bobby (Hakim) and Atin are going to get another term at the helm, with Mala added to the team,” added the MP. “One thing is for sure, she will bring in several new faces to the mayoral council.”

Besides MP Roy and MLAs Hakim and Ghosh, there are four other city MLAs among the councillors this time — Debashis Kumar, Debabrata Majumdar, Paresh Pal and Ratna Chatterjee. Sources in Trinamul said the three Independents who won were also likely to join on the sidelines of the meeting, taking the ruling party’s floor strength to 137 in the 144-seat body.