Mamata Banerjee is the eighth Chief Minister of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal and the first woman to hold this office. She founded the Trinamool Congress in 1998 after splitting from the Indian National Congress and has represented the Bhabanipur constituency in the state assembly since 2011.
When Mamata Banerjee first joined the Congress (I) in the 1970s, she rose to be the General Secretary of the State Mahila Congress (I) from 1976 to 1980. She has previously served as an MP for Kolkata South in the Lok Sabha and was the Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Women and Child Development under the P.V. Narasimha Rao government.
One of the defining moments in Mamata Banerjee’s political career was her involvement in the Singur and Nandigram movements. These movements — centered around land acquisition issues, particularly the acquisition of agricultural land for industrial projects — saw her rise as a leader and advocate for the rights of farmers and local communities in Bengal’s Singur and Nandigram districts. She received widespread support, eventually leading to the downfall of the 34-year-old Left Front government in West Bengal and her ascent to power.
Mamata Banerjee’s audacity and ambition knows no bounds.
Ideally, she and her ministers in the Bengal cabinet should have been in prison. Be it the massive fraud and corruption in teacher’s appointments or the RG car case or even the cut-money culture embedded in Bengal, the entire TMC administration should have been rotting away in jails.
However, the ex-CJI Mr. DY Chandrachud, with his “timely interventions” saved her in each of these cases. But for his generosity and affection, the TMC government would have lost all legitimacy to govern Bengal.
And here she is staking claim to be the Prime Ministerial candidate for the INDIA bloc!
One cannot but feel for Rahul Gandhi. Poor fellow.