Mamata Banerjee is the Indian politician, bureaucrat, and legislator who became the first female chief minister of West Bengal in India. She has had a long and illustrious political career spanning several decades. Here’s a brief look into her political journey.
Early forays into politics
Banerjee got involved with politics when she was in school. She joined the Congress (I) in West Bengal and served in a number of positions in the party and local organizations.
In 1984, Banerjee was elected for the first time to the Lok Sabha as a representative from her district in South Kolkata. Though she lost the seat in the next parliamentary election, she regained it once more in 1991. She kept coming back to office in every election through 2009.
A minister for major governmental posts
Mamata Banerjee served in different major administrative capacities within the party and the national government, which included three cabinet ministerial posts: railways (1999–2001; 2009–11), without portfolio (2003–04), & coal and mines (2004).
Though she was a prominent rising political star at the national arena during this time, she did not fail to retain her ties to West Bengal. Also, she was particularly outspoken against the communist party in her state that had been holding the seat of power since 1977.
Leaving the Congress Party and starting AITC
By the end of 1990s, Mamata Banerjee started raising her voice against corruption in the Congress Party. Besides, she also wanted to directly confront the Communist Party of India (Marxist) who were ruling the state.
Thus, she founded the AITC (All India Trinamool Congress) in 1997. Her new party wasn’t very successful in the parliamentary elections in the initial two years. In fact, the party lost all the seats in the poll conducted in 2004.
In 2001, the party challenged the ruling government in state legislative elections. Though the communists remained in power, the AITC managed to get sixty seats. Almost half of those seats were lost in the state elections in 2006.
Becoming the Chief Minister of West Bengal
Mamata Banerjee, back in December 2006, waged a hunger strike of twenty-five days to protest against the state government’s attempts to forcibly take farmlands to establish an automobile factory. This particular issue turned out to be the catalyst to make Banerjee and her party come-back from almost political obscurity. As a result, the AITC put up good numbers in the parliamentary elections in 2009. The party joined the ruling coalition of the Congress Party as the second biggest faction.
But Banerjee had the sights firmly set on the state parliamentary elections in 2011. For her, it was the opportunity to oust the communists from their seat of power. The AITC won with a majority in the 2011 elections by taking over three-fifths of the state legislature seats. Thereby, over thirty years of communist rule came to an end. Banerjee took her oath as a Chief Minister on 20th May.
Mamata Banerjee also won two consecutive state elections after 2011, and presently holds the position of the Chief Minister of West Bengal.
