Mamata Banerjee

Mamata Banerjee
মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়
Portrait of Mamata Banerjee
8th Chief Minister of West Bengal
Assumed office
20 May 2011
Governor M. K. Narayanan
D. Y. Patil (Acting)
Keshari Nath Tripathi
Preceded by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
Minister of Railways
In office
22 May 2009 – 19 May 2011
Preceded by Lalu Prasad Yadav
Succeeded by Dinesh Trivedi
Member of Parliament
for Kolkata Dakshin
In office
1991–2011
Preceded by Biplab Dasgupta
Succeeded by Subrata Bakshi
Member of Parliament
for Jadavpur
In office
1984–1989
Preceded by Somnath Chatterjee
Succeeded by Malini Bhattacharya
Member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly for Bhabanipur
Preceded by Subrata Bakshi
Personal details
Born (1955-01-05) 5 January 1955[1]
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Nationality Indian
Political party All India Trinamool Congress (1997–present)
Other political
affiliations		 Indian National Congress (Before 1997)
Residence Harish Chatterjee Street, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Alma mater University of Calcutta
Profession Politician
Religion Hinduism
Website aitcofficial.org/biography/

Mamata Banerjee ([mɔmɔt̪a bɔnd̪d̪oˈpad̪ʱˈae̯]; born 5 January 1955[2]) is an Indian politician who has been Chief Minister of West Bengal since 2011. She is the first woman to hold the office. Banerjee founded the party All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC or TMC) in 1997 and became its chairperson, after separating from the Indian National Congress.[3] She is often referred to as Didi (meaning elder sister in Bengali).

In 2011 Banerjee pulled off a landslide victory for the TMC Congress alliance in West Bengal, defeating the 34-year-old Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front government, the world's longest-serving democratically-elected communist government in the process.[4][5][6]

Banerjee previously served as the Minister of Railways twice and is also the first woman Railway Minister of India,[7] Minister of Coal, and Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Department of Youth Affairs and Sports and Women and Child Development in the cabinet of the Indian government.[8]

She rose to prominence after opposing the erstwhile land acquisition policies for industrialisation by the Communist government in West Bengal for Special Economic Zones at the cost of agriculturalists and farmers.[9]

In 2012, Time magazine named her one of the "100 Most influential People in the World".[10] In September 2012 Bloomberg Markets magazine listed her among the 50 most influential people in the world of finance.[11] The mercurial TMC leader was voted in May 2013 as India's most honest politician in an internal poll by members of India Against Corruption, India's largest anti-corruption coalition.[12] In 2016, Banerjee led the opposition to NDA Government Demonetisation process.[13]

Early life and education

Banerjee was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal in a Bengali Brahmin family[14][15] to Promileswar Banerjee and Gayetri Devi.[16] She grew up in a lower middle class family. Banerjee's father died due to lack of medical treatment, when she was 17.[17]

In 1970, Banerjee completed the higher secondary board examination from Deshbandhu Sishu Sikshalay.[17] Banerjee graduated with an honours degree in History from the Jogamaya Devi College, a Graduate women's college in southern Kolkata.[18][19] 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. She also earned a law degree from the Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College, Kolkata.[20] She was honored with DLitt from Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology.[21]

Banerjee became involved with politics when she was only 15. While studying at the Jogamaya Devi College established "Chhatra Parishad Unions", the student's wing of the Congress (I) Party, defeating the Democratic Students’ Union of the Socialist Unity Centre of India.[17] She continued in Congress (I) Party in West Bengal serving a variety of positions within the party and in other local political organizations. As a young woman in the 1970s, she quickly rose through the ranks to become the general secretary of the state Mahila Congress (1976–80).[9]

Banerjee is a self-taught painter and a poet.[22][23]

Personal life

Throughout her political life, Banerjee has maintained publicly an austere lifestyle, dressing in simple traditional Bengali clothes and avoiding on luxuries.

She has remained single throughout her life.[24][25]

Early political career, 1984–2011

Political career with Congress

Mamata Banerjee at Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Centre for Human Excellence and Social Sciences, Rajarhat, New Town, Kolkata.

Banerjee started her political career in the Congress party, and as a young woman in the 1970s, she quickly rose in the ranks of the local Congress group, and remained the General Secretary of Mahila Congress (I), West Bengal, from 1976 to 1980.[26] In the 1984 general election, Banerjee became one of India's youngest parliamentarians ever, beating veteran Communist politician Somnath Chatterjee, from the Jadavpur parliamentary Constituency in West Bengal. She also became the General-Secretary of the Indian Youth Congress. Losing her seat in 1989 in an anti-Congress wave, she was back in 1991 general elections, having settled into the Calcutta South constituency. She retained the Kolkata South seat in the 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2009 general elections.[27]

In the Rao government formed in 1991, Mamata Banerjee was made the Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Women and Child Development. As the sports minister, she announced that she would resign, and protested in a rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, against Government's indifference towards her proposal to improve sports in the country.[28] She was discharged of her portfolios in 1993. In April 1996, she alleged that Congress was behaving as a stooge of the CPI-M in West Bengal. She claimed that she was the lone voice of reason and wanted a "clean Congress".[29]

Founding Trinamool Congress

Mamata Banerjee speaking to the elected members and party workers at Bongaon stadium after the West Bengal panchayat elections.

In 1997, Mamata Banerjee left the Congress Party in West Bengal and established the All India Trinamool Congress. It quickly became the primary opposition party to the long-standing Communist government in the state. On 11 December 1998, she controversially held a Samajwadi Party MP, Daroga Prasad Saroj, by the collar and dragged him out of the well of the Lok Sabha to prevent him from protesting against the Women's Reservation Bill.[30]

In 1999, she joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and was allocated the Railways Ministry.[27]

Railway Minister (first tenure)

In 2002, Mamata Banerjee presented her first Railway Budget. In it she fulfilled many of her promises to her home state West Bengal.[31] She 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, Sealdah-New Jalpaiguri Express, Shalimar-Adra Aranyak Express and the Sealdah-Amritsar Superfast Express (weekly).[31] She also increased the frequency of the Pune-Howrah Azad Hind Express and extension of at least three express train services. Work on the Digha-Howrah Express service was also hastened during her brief tenure.[32]

She also focused on developing tourism, enabling the Darjeeling-Himalayan section with 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 fiscal year.[32]

In 2000, she and Ajit Kumar Panja resigned to protest the hike in petroleum prices,[33] and then withdrew their resignations without any reason. [34]

Alliance with NDA

In early 2001, after the Tehelka's exposure of Operation West End,[35] Banerjee walked out of the NDA cabinet and allied with the Congress Party for West Bengal's 2001 elections, in protest of the corruption charges levelled by Tehelka.com against senior ministers of the Government.[36]

She returned to the NDA government in January 2004, and held the Coal and Mines portfolio till the Indian general election of 20 May 2004, in which she was the only Trinamool Congress member to win a Parliament seat from West Bengal.[27]

On 20 October 2005, she protested against the forceful land acquisition and the atrocities perpetrated against local farmers in the name of industrial development policy of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government in West Bengal. Benny Santoso, CEO of the Indonesia-based Salim Group had pledged a large investment to West Bengal, and the West Bengal government had given him farmland in Howrah, sparking protest. In soaking rain, Banerjee and other Trinamool Congress members stood in front of the Taj Hotel where Santoso had arrived, shut out by the police. Later, she and her supporters followed Santoso's convoy. A planned "black flag" protest was avoided, when the government had Santoso arrive three hours ahead of schedule.[37][38]

Mamata Banerjee suffered further setbacks in 2005, when her party lost control of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the sitting mayor defected from her party. In 2006, the Trinamool Congress was defeated in West Bengal's Assembly Elections, losing more than half of its sitting members.

On 4 August 2006, Banerjee hurled her resignation papers at the deputy speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal in Lok Sabha. The provocation was the speaker (Somnath Chatterjee)'s rejection of her adjournment motion on illegal infiltration by Bangladeshis in West Bengal.[39][40][41] The motion was turned down by the speaker on the ground that it was not in the proper format.[42][43]

In November 2006, Banerjee was forcibly stopped on her way to Singur for a rally against a proposed Tata Motors car project. Mamata reached the West Bengal assembly and protested at the venue. She addressed a press conference at the assembly and announced a 12-hour shutdown by her party on Friday.[44] The Trinamul Congress MLAs protested by damaging furniture and microphones in the West Bengal Assembly.[44][45] A major strike was called on 14 December 2006.

Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister Government of West Bengal speaking at an event in London.

Alliance with UPA

Before the 2009 parliamentary elections she forged an alliance with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by Indian National Congress. The alliance won 26 seats. Banerjee joined the central cabinet as the railway minister (second tenure). In the 2010 Municipal Elections in West Bengal, TMC won Kolkata Municipal Corporation in a margin of 62 seats. TMC also won Bidhan Nagar Corporation in 16-9 seats margin.[46] In 2011, Banerjee won a sweeping majority and assumed the position of chief minister of the state of West Bengal. Her party ended the 34-year rule of the Left Front.

TMC threatened to withdraw support from UPA in protest at the government's decision to allow FDI in retail markets and also against a hike of petrol diesel prices and gave 72hrs for withdrawing the reforms. On 18 September 2012, Mamata Banarjee declared her party had withdrawn support from UPA and ran independently. The TMC's minister submitted his resignation on 21 September 2012.

Nandigram protests

Main article: Nandigram violence

The Nandigram violence was an incident in Nandigram, West Bengal where, a battalion of armed police stormed the rural area in the district of Purba Medinipur with the aim to recede the protests against the West Bengal government’s plans to expropriate 10,000 acres (40 km2) of land for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to be developed by the Indonesian-based Salim Group and shot dead at least 14 villagers and wounded 70 more.

It led to a large number of intellectuals protested on the streets..[47][48][49]

Mamata Banerjee also wrote letters to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil to stop what he called "state sponsored violence" promoted by CPI(M) in Nandigram.

Her political activism during the movement is widely believed to be one of the contributing causes to her landslide victory in 2011.

The CBI report on the incident clearly vindicated CPI(M)'s stand that the firing was not by the order of Buddhadeb but by the police to disperse the unlawful assembly after everything else in the standard operating procedure failed[50][51]

2009 Indian election

Trinamool Congress performed well in the 2009 parliamentary election, winning 19 MP seats. Its allies in congress and SUCI also got six and one MP seats respectively marking the best performance by any opposition party in West Bengal since the start of the Left regime. Until then, the Congress victory of 16 seats in 1984, was considered their best show in opposition.

Railway Minister (second tenure)

In 2009, Mamata Banerjee became the railway minister for the second time. Her focus was again on West Bengal.[52]

She led Indian Railways to introduce a number of non-stop Duronto Express trains connecting large cities[53] besides a number of other passenger trains,[54] including women-only trains.[55] [56][57] The Anantnag-Qadigund railway line of the Kashmir railway that has been in the making since 1994[58] was inaugurated during her tenure.[59] She also declared the 25-km long line-1 of Kolkata Metro as an independent Zone of the Indian Railways[60] for which she was criticised.[61]

She stepped down as railway minister to become the Chief Minister of West Bengal. She commented "The way I am leaving the railways behind, it will run well. Don’t worry, my successor will get all my support".[62] Her nominee from her party, Dinesh Trivedi, succeeded her as railway minister.

Mamata Banerjee's tenure as railway ministerwas subsequently questioned as most of the big-ticket announcements made by her when she was the railway minister, saw little or no progress.[63] Reuters reported that "Her two-year record as railway minister has been heavily criticized for running the network into more debt to pay for populist measures such as more passenger trains."[64] The Indian Railways became loss-making in her two-year tenure.[65]

Chief Minister of West Bengal

First term, 2011–16

Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister Government of West Bengal at an event in London on 27 July 2015.

In 2011, the All India Trinamool Congress along with SUCI and the Indian National Congress won the West Bengal legislative assembly election against the incumbent Left Alliance by securing 227 seats. TMC won 184 seats with the INC winning 42 seats and the SUCI secured one seat. This marked the end of the longest ruling democratically elected Communist party in the world.
Taking the Oath at Raj Bhavan, Kolkata
Mamata Banerjee takes the oath of office as Chief Minister administered by Governor M. K. Narayanan on 20 May 2011.

Banerjee was sworn in as Chief Minister of West Bengal on 20 May 2011. As the first female Chief Minister of West Bengal, one of her first decisions was to return 400 acres of land to Singur farmers. "The cabinet has decided to return 400 acres to unwilling farmers in Singur," the chief minister said. "I have instructed the department to prepare the papers for this. If Tata-babu(Ratan Tata) wants, he can set up his factory on the remaining 600 acres, otherwise we will see how to go about it," she added.[66]

She has also been credited to solving the longstanding "Gorkhaland related violence" by setting up the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.[67]

She has started various reforms in education and health sectors. Some of the reforms in the education sectors include release of the monthly pay of the teachers on the first of every month[68][69] and quicker pensions for retiring teachers.[70] In health sector "A three-phase developmental system will be taken up to improve the heath infrastructure and service,” Mamata Banerjee said."[71] On 30 April 2015, the representative of UNICEF India congratulated the government for making Nadia the first Open Defecation Free district in the country.[72]

In fact she was instrumental in the rollback of the petrol price hikes[73] and the suspension of FDI in Retail Sector until a consensus is evolved.[74] In a bid of improve the law and enforcement situation in West Bengal, Police commissionerates were created at Howrah, Barrackpore, Durgapur-Asansol and Bidhannagar. The total area of Kolkata Municipal Corporation has been brought under the control of Kolkata Police.
Mamata Banerjee at the Inaugural Address of 38th International Kolkata Book Fair
Mamata Banerjee at the Inaugural Address of 38th International Kolkata Book Fair in 2014.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjeee in Bangladesh.

Mamata Banerjee had shown keen interest in making the public aware of the state's history and culture. She had named several stations of the Kolkata Metro after freedom fighters,[75] and plans on naming upcoming stations after religious leaders, poets, singers and the like.[76]

Priti Patel, Minister for Employment and UK Indian Diaspora Champion meeting Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister Government of West Bengal in London.

On 16 February 2012, Bill Gates, of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, sent a letter to the West Bengal government praising Mamata Banerjee and her administration for achieving a full year without any reported cases of polio. The letter said this was not only a milestone for India but also for the whole world.[77]

In June 2012, she launched a Facebook page to rally and gather public support for A.P.J Abdul Kalam, her party's choice for the presidential elections.[78] After he refused to stand for the second time, she gave her support to Pranab Mukherjee for the post after a long tussle over the issue commenting she was personally a "great fan" of Mukherjee and wishing that he "grows from strength to strength".[79]

She is against calling bandhs (work stoppage) although actively them when she was in opposition.[80]

Her tenure was also heavily marred by the Saradha Scam-a financial embezzlement which led to the imprisonment of Madan Mitra- a former minister in her cabinet, Kunal Ghosh-a party MP and rigorous grilling of several party men holding important posts.

Second term, 2016–present

West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, 2016 was held for 294 seats (out of 295 seats) of the Vidhan Sabha in the state of West Bengal in India.All India Trinamool Congress won the elections with a landslide two-third majority under Mamata Banerjee winning 211 seats out of total 293.[81] who has been elected as Chief Minister West Bengal for the second term.[82]All India Trinamool Congress won with an enhanced majority contesting alone and became the first ruling party to win without an ally since 1962 in West Bengal.

Controversies

In a statement on 17 October 2012, Banerjee attributed the increasing incidence of rape in the country to "more free interaction between men and women". She said,"Earlier if men and women would hold hands, they would get caught by parents and reprimanded but now everything is so open. It’s like an open market with open options." She was criticised in the national media for these statements.[83]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Mamata Banerjee's Biodata in Lok Sabha's Document". loksabha.nic.in.
  2. ↑ "CM Mamata reveals her true age; says she is 5 years younger". OneIndia.
  3. ↑ Kohari, Alizeh (20 May 2011). "Mamata Banerjee sworn in as West Bengal chief minister". BBC News.
  4. ↑ "India: Mamata Banerjee routs communists in West Bengal". BBC News. 13 May 2011. Retrieved 14 May 2011.
  5. ↑ "Indian state election expected to end Kolkata's 34-year communist rule". The Guardian. UK. 18 April 2011. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
  6. ↑ "The woman taking on India's communists". BBC World News. 15 April 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
  7. ↑ "The Tribune, Chandigarh, India – R A I L W A Y B U D G E T". The Tribune. 26 February 2000. Retrieved 2012-10-16.
  8. ↑ "Detailed Profile = Km. Mamata Banerjee". Government of India. Archived from the original on 26 August 2010. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
  9. 1 2 Yardley, Jim (14 January 2011). "The Eye of an Indian Hurricane, Eager to Topple a Political Establishment". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 January 2011.
  10. ↑ "Time 100: Mamata Banerjee, Populist". Time. 18 April 2012. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  11. ↑ "Mamata Banerjee among world's 50 influential leaders in finance". Zeenews.india.com. Retrieved 16 October 2012.
  12. ↑ Author:G.Satyaprasad Rao, Trinamool Congress takes lead to form Third Front, New Delhi, Saturday 15 June 2013, 00:23 AM (IST)
  13. ↑ "Will Mamata Banerjee's Hindi handicap hurt her ambition to be prime minister?".
  14. ↑ kheya bag. "Kheya Bag: Red Bengal's Rise and Fall". New Left Review. Retrieved 16 October 2012.
  15. ↑ "Political Eclipse of Once Formidable Brahmins". Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  16. ↑ "Mamata's 5 years younger". Retrieved 29 February 2012.
  17. 1 2 3 "A Fire-Dweller At The Kiln". Outlook India. 5 November 2012. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  18. ↑ "History of the College". Jogamayadevicollege.org. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
  19. ↑ 'My focus is always to be with the people' – Hindustan Times
  20. ↑ "Parliament of India-Biodata". Archived from the original on 26 July 2010.
  21. ↑ "Times of India Article on Mamata's Doctorate".
  22. ↑ "The poet and painter in Mamata Banerjee's looks beyond Bengal". Indian Express. 18 February 2013. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  23. ↑ "Mamata Banerjee's painting auctioned in New York for $3000". Times of India. 12 October 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  24. ↑ "Mamata saris the rage in Kolkata this Durga Puja". FirstPost. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  25. ↑ "Blog article in IBNLive.in.com". CNN-IBN. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
  26. ↑ "Mamta Banerjee Profile". incredible-people.com.
  27. 1 2 3 "Mamata, the street-fighting politician and Left nemesis". India Today. 13 May 2011.
  28. ↑ "Mamata mum on relations with BJP". 6 January 2003. Retrieved 2 December 2006.
  29. ↑ "Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee biography". India Today. 12 May 2011. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  30. ↑ "National Events in December 1998". The Hindu. India. Retrieved 12 November 2007. Archived 24 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
  31. 1 2 "New trains for West Bengal". The Tribune. India. 26 February 2000. Retrieved 12 November 2007.
  32. 1 2 "Railways to focus on tourism, trans-Asian role, hardselling freight services". Rediff.com. 25 February 2000. Retrieved 12 November 2007.
  33. ↑ "PETROL IGNITES MAMATA RESIGNATION". The Telegraph (Calcutta). Calcutta, India. 1 October 2000. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  34. ↑ Gupta, Subhrangshu (9 October 2000). "Mamata's antics invite criticism". Tribune India. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  35. ↑ "Sting on a shoestring". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  36. ↑ "West Bengal: Elections 2001 Countdown". Outlook India. 3 May 2001. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  37. ↑ "Weather plays spoilsport for TMC". 21 October 2005. Archived from the original on 18 February 2007. Retrieved 2 December 2006.
  38. ↑ "Missing on bandh day: its champions – Mamata stays indoors, Cong scarce". The Telegraph. Calcutta,. 10 October 2006. Retrieved 2 December 2006.
  39. ↑ "Mamata Banerjee cartoons - itimes". Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  40. ↑ "Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee biography". Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  41. ↑ "The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Opinions". Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  42. ↑ "Mamata Banerjee's unending tantrums". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 8 August 2005. Retrieved 2 December 2006.
  43. ↑ "Mamata casts shame at House Paper throw at Speaker". The Telegraph. Calcutta, India. 4 August 2005. Retrieved 2 December 2006.
  44. 1 2 "Trinamool unleashes violence in W Bengal". 30 November 2006. Retrieved 2 December 2006. Archived 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  45. ↑ "Heritage vandalised in Bengal House". The Times of India. 2 December 2006. Retrieved 2 December 2006.
  46. ↑ Singh, Raj (20 April 2014). "Who is Mamata Banerjee?". India TV. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  47. ↑ "Nandigram people's struggle "heroic": Clark". One India. Archived from the original on 17 February 2012.
  48. ↑ Kirschbaum, Stevan. "Nandigram says 'No!' to Dow's chemical hub". International Action Center.
  49. ↑ "The Great Left Debate: Chomsky to Saddam, Iraq to Nandigram". The Indian Express. India. 5 December 2007.
  50. ↑ Sen, Saibal (31 January 2014). "Nandigram firing: Full text of CBI's Nandigram chargesheet". The Times of India. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  51. ↑ "Red-hand Buddha: 14 killed in Nandigram re-entry bid". The Telegraph. Calcutta, India. 15 March 2007. Retrieved 15 March 2007.
  52. ↑ "Mamata gifts new projects to north Bengal". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 29 January 2011. Archived from the original on 6 December 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  53. ↑ "mamata-flags-off-sealdah-new-delhi-duronto-express". Armoks News. Retrieved 16 October 2009. Archived 14 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
  54. ↑ "Mamata Banerjee to start 19 new trains on 7 February". Business Standard. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
  55. ↑ "A New Way to Commute: Women-Only Trains in India". Marie Claire. Retrieved 27 January 2010.
  56. ↑ "Ladies Special Rolls Out". Express India. Retrieved 16 October 2009. Archived 10 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  57. ↑ "New CST Panvel Ladies Special". Bombay-Local. Retrieved 16 October 2009.
  58. ↑ Arun Sharma (10 October 1998). "Destination nowhere". The Indian Express. Retrieved 14 August 2008.
  59. ↑ "Prime Minister dedicates Anantnag-Quazigund rail line in Kashmir to nation". Press Release, Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 28 October 2009. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
  60. ↑ "Kolkata Metro gets railway zone status". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 30 December 2010. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  61. ↑ "Rail budget: Parliament uproar over Kolkata metro plan". Asian Age. 25 February 2011. Archived from the original on 24 March 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  62. ↑ "Job done, successor only has to monitor". The Telegraph. Calcutta, India. 18 May 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  63. ↑ "Mamata's big rail plans of 2011–12 still stuck on performance track".
  64. ↑ Scrutton, Alistair (12 May 2011). "SPECIAL REPORT – "Big Sister" Mamata set to evict Left from Kolkata". Reuters. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  65. ↑ "Why Indian Railways is incurring losses under Mamata". Rediff.com. 28 January 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  66. ↑ "Singur Land Given Back". The Times of India.
  67. ↑ "Gorkhaland Autonomous Council". The Times of India. 19 July 2011.
  68. ↑ "College teachers to get salary by the first of every month". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 4 June 2011.
  69. ↑ "Mamata effect: Salaries on first day of the month". Archived from the original on 21 July 2012.
  70. ↑ "Quicker pensions for retiring teachers: Mamata". The Times of India.
  71. ↑ "Mamata Banerjee announced health sector reform".
  72. ↑ "Mamata declares Nadia first 'open defecation-free' district in India". THE HINDU. 30 April 2015.
  73. ↑ "Petrol price cut a positive step: Mamata Banerjee". Zee News.
  74. ↑ "Don't want government to fail, but can't support FDI". The Indian Express.
  75. ↑ Das, Soumitra (26 July 2009). "Game of the name". The Telegraph India. Calcutta, India. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
  76. ↑ Mandal, Sanjay (16 January 2011). "Didi's metro name game". The Telegraph India. Calcutta, India. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
  77. ↑ "Bill Gates appreciates Mamata Banerjee for polio eradication".
  78. ↑ "Mamata launches Facebook page – seeks support for APJ Abdul Kalam". 16 June 2012.
  79. ↑ "Mamata didi is a big fan of Pranab Mukherjee". Economic Times. 3 May 2012.
  80. ↑ R.N.SUBRAHMANYAM (3 May 2012). "Prez polls: Mamata throws surprise on Pranab Mukherjee". The Indian Express. Retrieved 16 October 2012.
  81. ↑ "NDTV Live Results". Retrieved 19 May 2016.
  82. ↑ "TMC storms back to power in Bengal, Cong-Left alliance loses". The Financial Express. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
  83. ↑ "Mamata blames media, 'free interaction of men-women' for rising cases of rape!". Daily Bhaskar. 17 October 2012.

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Preceded by
Lalu Prasad Yadav		 Minister of Railways
2009–2011 		Succeeded by
Dr. Manmohan Singh (pro tem)
Preceded by
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee		 Chief Minister of West Bengal
2011–present 		Incumbent
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