Mamata Banerjee

Born On: January 5, 1955
Born In: Kolkata, West Bengal
Career: Politician

A women who uprooted the 34-year rooted communist rule in West Bengal - Mamata Banerjee is an iron lady with a single-minded approach to her destiny. From rabble-rousing politics to becoming the Chief Minister of West Bengal, she has proved her strength and will-power to rewrite the political history of her state. Often found actively addressing open-air rallies and dharnas, Mamata raises a non-compromise attitude towards achieving her goals and this is really her strength. Her protest and fight against the Singur, Nandigram and against forceful land acquisition made her a popular leader among the people of West Bengal. Her simple white cotton sari with a cotton bag slung on her shoulders makes her different from other leaders. Her ability to motivate people with rousing speeches made her popular among the people of West Bengal. Her powerful speeches delivered with quotes from Tagore and other poets are well in line with the grass root imagery that helped drag commoners towards her.

Early Life
Mamata Banerjee was born on 5 January 1955, in Kolkata, West Bengal to Gayetri and Promileswar Banerjee. She belonged to a lower middle-class family and started her political career with the Congress. She jumped and danced on the bonnet of Jaiprakash Narayan's car as a reaction to the riffraff of the government and this was when she only a college-going girl. She completed her graduation in History at the Jogamaya Devi College in southern Kolkata and took up a Master's degree in Islamic History from the University of Calcutta. She continued to pursue her education and finished another degree at the Shri Shikshayatan College. This was followed by taking up a law degree from the Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College, Kolkata.

Career
Mamata Banerjee entered into politics as a Congress member and in the 1970s at a young age became the General Secretary of the state Mahila Congress (1976-80). She competed against veteran communist politician SomnathChatterjee in the 1984 general elections from Jadavpur parliamentary constituency in West Bengal and became one of India's youngest parliamentarians ever. She also served as the General-Secretary of the 'All India Youth Congress'. She was the Union Minister of State for Human Resources, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Women and Child Development in the Narasimha Rao led government in 1991. As a protest against the government's indifference towards her proposals for the development of sports, she announced her resignation. She was bold enough to claim that she wanted a "Clean Congress" and in a private rally in Kolkata she wrapped her shawl around her neck threatening to make a loop out of it. In 1996 she protested against the government's move to increase the price of petrol despite being a union minister in that government.

It was because of utter disagreement with her party that she left and founded or established the All India Trinamool Congress which in a short-time became a strong force against the communist government in the state. She joined hands with the NDA government in 1999 and became the Union minister of Railways and fulfilled many of her promises to West Bengal. She introduced 19 new trains in 2000-2001 fiscal year. She resigned from the NDA government in 2001 because of some allegations and returned to the cabinet in 2004 as a Coal and Mines minister. However, Trinamool Congress members were defeated in the West Bengal assembly elections 2006. This was a major setback in her career. Trinamool Congress entered into an alliance with the UPA government and Mamata Banerjee became the Indian Railway minister once again. The 2011 assembly elections were a major turning point in her political career. In these elections the Trinamool Congress won and Mamata Banerjee became the Chief Minister of West Bengal on 20th May, 2011 and the first ever woman Chief Minister of West Bengal.

Contributions
Mamata Banerjee founded the political party "All India Trinamool Congress". She fought against Tata Motor's plan to construct a plant there. She also fought for against the West Bengal government's plans to deprive 10,000 acres of land for a proposed Special Economic Zone (SEZ). During her first tenure as Railway minister she focused on developing tourism and made a proposal to establish an "Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited" as a tourism project.

Timeline

1955: Mamata Banerjee was born in Kolkata.
1976: She becomes the General Secretary of West Bengal Mahila Congress.
1984: She becomes the youngest parliamentarian.
1989: Loses to Malini Bhattacharya from Jadavpore.
1991: Became Lok Sabha member again by defeating CPI-M's BiplabDasgupta1991: Became Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Youth Affairs and Women and Child Development in the Narasimha Rao government.
1997: Formation of the All India Trinamool Congress in Kolkata.
1998: Trinamool Congress comes into existence formally.
1999: Becomes Union minister in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.
2001: Quits the NDA.
2001: Returns to the NDA.
2004: Becomes coal and mines minister.
2006: Held a rally against a proposed Tata Motors car project at Singur.
2009: Became Railway Minister in the UPA government.
2011: Became the first ever women Chief Minister of West Bengal by putting an end to the long-rooted communist rule.