Mamata Banerjee ( মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়; born 5 January 1955) is the 11th and current Chief Minister of the Indian state of West Bengal. She is the first woman to hold the office and is also the founding chairperson of the Trinamool Congress. Currently she is also in charge of nine key departments of the Government of West Bengal, including Home, Health and Family Welfare, Land and Land Reforms, Information and Cultural Affairs, Hill Affairs, Minority Affairs and Madrassah Education, Agriculture, Power and Home (Personnel and Administrative Reforms departments. Noted as a firebrand orator and popularly known as "Didi" (meaning the elder sister) to all her followers.
Banerjee pulled off a landslide victory for the All India Trinamul Congress in West Bengal by defeating the world's longest-serving democratically-elected communist government, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Frontgovernment, bringing to an end 34 years of Left Front rule in the state. Banerjee previously served as aMinister of Railways twice, Minister of Coal once, and Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Department of Youth Affairs and Sports and Women and Child Development once in the cabinet of the Government of India. She opposed forceful land acquisition for industrialization by the then communist government in West Bengal for Special Economic Zones at the cost of agriculturalists and farmers.
Early life and career
Mamata Banerjee was born to Gayetri and Promileswar Banerjee on 5 January 1955, in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. She grew up in a lower middle-class family and then started her political career with the Congress. As a young woman in the 1970s, she quickly rose in the ranks to become the general secretary of the state Mahila Congress (1976–80). She was a College-going adult in the mid-1970s when politics in Bengal had begun to accommodate the riffraff. Uninhibited, she jumped up and danced on the bonnet of Jaiprakash Narayan's car. Throughout her political life she maintained an austere lifestyle and never spent money on clothes, cosmetics and jewellery and slung a cotton bag on her shoulder. She has remained single throughout her life
She graduated with an honours degree in History from the Jogamaya Devi College, an undergraduate women's college in southern Kolkata. Later she earned a master's degree in Islamic History from the University of Calcutta. This was followed by a degree in education from the Shri Shikshayatan College. Later, she earned a law degree from theJogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College, Kolkata.
Early political career
In the West Bengal Assembly elections of 2011, Trinamool Congress and congress parties combined, spearheaded by Mamata Banerjee successfully won with over 77% of the total seats. This is considered a historic victory over the Left Front rule. She is the 11th Chief Minister and first woman chief Minister of the state. The highlight of the election was that only four ministers out of the twenty eight of the outgoing regime were able to retain their seats. Even the outgoing Chief Minister Mr Buddhadev Bhattacharya lost in his own constituency.
