Mamata Banerjee

Mamata Banerjee is the Chief Minister of West Bengal. She was born on 05- January-1955 to Promileswar Banerjee and Gayetri Devi in Kolkata. In 1970, Banerjee completed her higher secondary board examination from Deshbandhu Sishu Sikshalay. She did her Bachelor’s in History from the Jogamaya Devi College. She attained her Master’s degree in Islamic history from the University of Kolkata. She received an Honorary Doctorate from the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar. She was also honored with a Doctorate of Literature(D.Litt) degree by Kolkata University. She writes poems and has sold almost 300 works of paintings. She is considered by many as a Prime Ministerial candidate.

She entered politics when she was only 15 years old. In 1970, She started her political journey with the Indian National Congress(INC) party. While studying at the Jogamaya Devi College she established Chhatra Parishad Unions, the student’s wing of the Congress Party, defeating the All India Democratic Students Organisation affiliated with the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist). She continued in Congress Party in West Bengal serving a variety of positions within the party and in other local political organizations.

Banerjee selected as General Secretary of Mahila Congress, West Bengal from 1976 to 1980. In the 1984 general election, she won her first-ever Lok Sabha election defeating Communist stalwart Somnath Chatterjee from Jadavpur Loksabha Constituency. Banerjee became one of India’s youngest parliamentarians. She also became the General Secretary of the Indian Youth Congress. Losing her seat in the 1989 general elections in an anti-Congress wave, she was Re-elected to Loksabha in the 1991 general elections, having settled into the Kolkata South constituency. She retained the Kolkata South seat in the 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004, and 2009 general elections. Banerjee was appointed the Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Women and Child Development in 1991.

In 1997, Banerjee left the Congress Party and established the All India Trinamool Congress. She became Chairperson of the All India Trinamool Congress in 1998. In 1999, she joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and was allocated the Railways Ministry. In 2000, Banerjee presented her first Railway Budget. In it, she fulfilled many of her promises to her home state West Bengal. She introduced a new biweekly New Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani Express train and four express trains connecting various parts of West Bengal, She also increased the frequency of the Pune-Howrah Azad Hind Express and the extension of at least three express train services.

She also focused on Developing Tourism, enabling the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway section to obtain two additional locomotives, and proposing the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited. She also commented that India should play a pivotal role in the Trans-Asian Railway and that rail links between Bangladesh and Nepal would be reintroduced. In all, she introduced 19 new trains for the 2000–2001 financial year. In 2000, she and Ajit Kumar Panja resigned to protest the hike in petroleum prices.

In 2005, Mamata protested against the forceful land acquisition by the West Bengal government. More than lakh farmers were with Mamata. Just before the Loksabha elections, she joined Congress-led UPA and won. Mamata registered her fifth consecutive victory from Kolkata Dakshin and was inducted into the cabinet as Railway Minister in 2009. This was her Second Term as Railway Minister. She was elected as Chief Minister of West Bengal in 2011 for the first time. In 2012, Mamata withdrew support from the UPA. She Became Chief Minister of West Bengal for a Second Term in 2016.

Personal life:

Throughout her political life, Banerjee has maintained a publicly austere lifestyle, dressing in simple traditional Bengali clothes and avoided luxuries. In an interview in April 2019, Prime minister Narendra Modi claimed that despite their political differences, Banerjee sends her own selected kurtas and sweets to him every year.

Recognitions:

• In 2012, Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
• Bloomberg Markets magazine listed her among the 50 most influential people in the world of finance in September 2012.
• In 2018, she has conferred the Skoch Chief Minister of the Year Award.