Mamata Banerjee

Mamata Banerjee (Mamata Bandhopadhyaya) born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the 8th and current Chief Minister of West Bengal since 2011 being the first woman to hold the office. She founded the party All India Trinamool Congress (AITC or TMC) in 1998 after separating from the Indian National Congress, and became its chairperson. She is often referred to as Didi (meaning: elder sister in Bengali).Banerjee has previously served twice as the Minister of Railways, the first woman to do so. She is also the first female Minister of Coal, and Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Youth Affairs, Sports, Women and Child Development in the cabinet of the Indian government. She rose to prominence after opposing the erstwhile land acquisition policies for industrialisation of the Communist government in West Bengal for Special Economic Zones at the cost of agriculturalists and farmers at Singur. In 2011 Banerjee pulled off a landslide victory for the AITC 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.