73 Facts About Mamata Banerjee

Mamata Banerjee is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal since 20 May 2011, the first woman to hold the office.

Mamata Banerjee founded the All India Trinamool Congress in 1998 after separating from the Indian National Congress, and became its first chairperson.

Mamata Banerjee is the second female Minister of Coal, and Minister of Human Resource Development, Youth Affairs and Sports, Women and Child Development in the cabinet of the Indian government.

Mamata Banerjee rose to prominence after opposing the erstwhile land acquisition policies for industrialisation of the Communist-led government in West Bengal for Special Economic Zones at the cost of agriculturalists and farmers at Singur.

In 2011, Mamata Banerjee pulled off a landslide victory for the AITC alliance in West Bengal, defeating the 34-year-old Communist Party of India -led Left Front government, the world's longest-serving democratically elected communist-led government, in the process.

Mamata Banerjee served as the member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly from Bhabanipur from 2011 to 2021.

Mamata Banerjee contested the Nandigram assembly seat and lost to the BJP's Suvendu Adhikari in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, though her party won a large majority of seats.

Mamata Banerjee is the third West Bengal Chief Minister to lose an election from her own constituency, after Prafulla Chandra Sen in 1967 and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in 2011.

Mamata Banerjee challenged the result of Nandigram Constituency in Calcutta High Court and the matter is sub judice.

Mamata Banerjee led her party to a landslide victory in the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls.

Mamata Banerjee got elected as member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly again from Bhabanipur constituency in the bypoll.

Mamata Banerjee was born in Calcutta, West Bengal, to a Bengali Hindu Brahmin family.

In 1970, Mamata Banerjee completed the higher secondary board examination from Deshbandhu Sishu Sikshalay.

Mamata Banerjee became involved with politics when she was only 15.

Mamata Banerjee continued in the Congress Party in West Bengal, serving in a variety of positions within the party and in other local political organisations.

Mamata Banerjee began her political career in the Congress party as a young woman in the 1970s.

Mamata Banerjee quickly rose in the ranks of the local Congress group and remained the general secretary of Mahila Congress, West Bengal, from 1976 to 1980.

Mamata Banerjee became the general secretary of the Indian Youth Congress in 1984.

Mamata Banerjee lost her seat to Malini Bhattacharya of the Communist Party of India in the 1989 general elections in an anti-Congress wave.

Mamata Banerjee was re-elected in the 1991 general elections, having settled into the Calcutta South constituency.

Mamata Banerjee retained the Kolkata South seat in the 1996,1998,1999,2004 and 2009 general elections.

Mamata Banerjee said that she was the lone voice of reason and wanted a "clean Congress".

Mamata Banerjee had sworn she would enter the building again only as chief minister.

The State Youth Congress led by Mamata Banerjee organised a protest march to Writers Building in Kolkata on 21 July 1993 against the Communist government of the state.

In 1997, due to difference in political views with the then West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Somendra Nath Mitra, Mamata Banerjee left the Congress Party in West Bengal and became one of the founding members of the All India Trinamool Congress, along with Mukul Roy.

Mamata Banerjee introduced a new biweekly New Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani Express train and four express trains connecting various parts of West Bengal, namely the Howrah-Purulia Rupasi Bangla Express, the Sealdah-New Jalpaiguri Padatik Express, the Shalimar-Adra Aranyak Express, the Sealdah-Ajmer Ananya Superfast Express, and Sealdah-Amritsar Akal Takht Superfast Express.

Mamata Banerjee increased the frequency of the Pune-Howrah Azad Hind Express and extended at least three express train services.

Mamata Banerjee 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.

Mamata Banerjee 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 early 2001, after Tehelka exposure of Operation West End, Mamata Banerjee walked out of the NDA cabinet and allied with the Congress Party for West Bengal's 2001 elections, to protest the corruption charges levelled by the website against senior ministers of the government.

Mamata Banerjee returned to the NDA government in September 2003 as a cabinet minister without any portfolio.

Mamata Banerjee held the Coal and Mines portfolios till 22 May 2004.

Mamata Banerjee suffered further setbacks in 2005 when her party lost control of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the sitting mayor Subrata Mukherjee defected from her party.

On 4 August 2006, Mamata Banerjee hurled her resignation papers at the deputy speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal in Lok Sabha.

Mamata Banerjee was provoked by Speaker Somnath Chatterjee's rejection of her adjournment motion on illegal infiltration by Bangladeshis in West Bengal on the grounds that it was not in the proper format.

In November 2006, Mamata Banerjee was forcibly stopped on her way to Singur for a rally against a proposed Tata Motors car project.

Mamata Banerjee reached the West Bengal assembly and protested at the venue.

Mamata Banerjee addressed a press conference at the assembly and announced a 12-hour shutdown by her party on Friday.

The TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, who was arrested by police earlier in that day 'for violating prohibitory orders' near Singur, alleged that the administration had acted 'unconstitutionally' by preventing her from entering Singur where the Tata motors proposed to set up a small car factory.

Kalam appealed to Ms Mamata Banerjee to withdraw her fast as "life is precious".

Mamata Banerjee wrote letters to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil to stop what she called "state-sponsored violence" promoted by CPI in Nandigram.

Mamata Banerjee joined the central cabinet as the railway minister.

In 2011, Mamata Banerjee won a sweeping majority and assumed the position of chief minister of the state of West Bengal.

Mamata Banerjee's party ended the 34-year rule of the Left Front.

In 2009, Mamata Banerjee became the railway minister for the second time.

Mamata Banerjee led Indian Railways to introduce a number of non-stop Duronto Express trains connecting large cities as well as a number of other passenger trains, including women-only trains.

Mamata Banerjee stepped down as railway minister to become the chief minister of West Bengal.

Mamata Banerjee was sworn in as chief minister of West Bengal on 20 May 2011.

Mamata Banerjee has been credited for setting up of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.

Mamata Banerjee began various reforms in the education and health sectors.

Mamata Banerjee was instrumental in the rollback of the petrol price hikes and the suspension of FDI in the retail sector until a consensus is evolved.

Mamata Banerjee had shown a keen interest in making the public aware of the state's history and culture.

Mamata Banerjee named several stations of the Kolkata Metro after freedom fighters, and plans on naming upcoming stations after religious leaders, poets, singers and the like.

Mamata Banerjee has been criticised for starting controversial stipends to imams which was ruled unconstitutional by Calcutta High Court.

Mamata Banerjee is against calling bandhs although actively supported them when she was in opposition.

But, Mamata Banerjee who fought from Nandigram lost against Suvendu Adhikari of Bharatiya Janata Party by 1,956 votes.

Mamata Banerjee however challenged this outcome and the matter is sub judice.

Mamata Banerjee took oath as Chief Minister on 5 May 2021.

Mamata Banerjee has been criticised by opposition parties for not taking adequate steps against her own ministers who tried to cover-up their deeds.

The Rose Valley financial scandal was a major financial scam and alleged political scandal in India caused by the collapse of a Ponzi scheme run by Rose Valley Group where multiple MPs from Mamata Banerjee's party were accused of money laundering.

Mamata Banerjee has been criticised for starting controversial stipends to imams.

Mamata Banerjee denied permission for Anti-CAA rallies and suppressed campus democracy in West Bengal.

The West Bengal police denied permission to Aishe Ghosh to hold a rally at Durgapur in Bengal's West Burdwan district saying chief minister Mamata Banerjee was holding a roadshow at the same spot.

The opposition accused Mamata Banerjee of playing "appeasement politics" amid the COVID-19 crisis.

However, Mamata Banerjee blamed BJP's IT cell for "using fake news to malign West Bengal's health department".

Jashodaben, the wife of PM Modi, was leaving Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee met her at the Kolkata airport and gifted her a saree.

Mamata Banerjee stepped out into the streets of Kolkata during lockdown, caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, to spread awareness among the common people.

In 2021, Mamata Banerjee was invited to attend World Meeting for Peace in Rome.

Mamata Banerjee was the only Indian invited to attend the event.

BJP MP Subramanian Swamy slammed Modi government on Mamata Banerjee's Rome visit cancelation.

Mamata Banerjee received an honorary doctorate from the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar.

Baghini, a Bengali film, inspired by Mamata Banerjee's life, was released on 24 May 2019.

Mamata Banerjee is a lyricist and her compositions are mostly based on 'Durga Puja' and 'Motherland'.