Mamata Banerjee

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Mamata Banerjee

Mamata Banerjee ( Bengali মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায় Mamatā Bandyopādhyāẏ ; born January 5, 1955 in Calcutta ) is an Indian politician . She is the founder and chairwoman of the West Bengal regional party All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and since 2011 Chief Minister of the State of West Bengal .

Life

Early years and career in the Congress Party

Mamata Banerjee was born into a Bengali Brahmin family, the daughter of Promileswar Banerjee and Gayetri Banerjee in Calcutta. She studied politics and law at the University of Calcutta and earned an MA , B.Ed. , as well as LL.B. Politically, she first joined the Congress Party , where she quickly made a career and from 1970 to 1980 was President of the Mahila Congress (I) in West Bengal, the local women's organization of the All India Congress Committee . In the all-India parliamentary election in 1984 , she was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in constituency 18-Jadavpur . In the following election in 1989 she ran again in this constituency, but was narrowly defeated by the candidate of the CPI (M) . In the 1991 election she won constituency 23-Calcutta South . In the cabinet of Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao she was Minister of State (State Secretary) for the development of human resources, youth and sport, as well as women's and child development from 1991 to 1993.

Establishment of the Trinamool Congress

In the 1996 election she was re-elected for the Congress Party in constituency 23-Calcutta South . In the years 1996 to 1997 there was an increasing rift between Banerjee and the Congress party leadership. The impetuous Mamata Banerjee, who never minced her mouth, criticized the congressional party leadership for being too weak against the communists who had dominated West Bengal since the 1970s, tried in vain to establish herself as the local party leader of the congress in West Bengal, and made political overtures the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and threatened to run the next election under its own symbol. These developments culminated in Mamata Banerjee's official exclusion from the congress party on December 22, 1997. She then founded her own party, the West Bengal Trinamool Congress (WBTC, “ West Bengal Grassroots Congress”), renamed the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC ) a little later ), whose party chair she became and remains to this day. There were hardly any ideological differences between the Congress Party and the Trinamool Congress. The differences were practically exclusively in the leaders. Of the 82 Congress Party MPs in the West Bengal Parliament, 19 joined the new party. In the Indian parliamentary elections in 1998 , the Trinamool Congress entered into an electoral alliance with the BJP and won 24.4 percent of the vote and 7 of the 42 constituencies of West Bengal. The congress party was only able to win a single constituency with a 15.2 percent share of the vote. As a result, the Trinamool Congress developed into the leading opposition party against the communists ruling West Bengal. In the all-India elections in 1998 and 1999 , Banerjee again won constituency 23-Calcutta South - this time, however, under the flag of the WBTC / AITC. The Trinamool Congress joined the BJP-led NDA party alliance and participated in the government under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee . In the Vajpayee III cabinet , Mamata Banerjee was Minister of Railways from October 13, 1999 to March 16, 2001. In 2001 there was a break with the BJP. Mamata Banerjee resigned from the ministerial office and the WBTC left the coalition government and the alliance with the BJP. The occasion was the so-called Operation West End , in which investigative journalists exposed the corruption of a number of government employees.

Phase of decline

Banerjee was sworn in as Minister on January 9, 2004

In the years that followed, there was some decline in Banerjee's Trinamool Congress. In the 2001 election to the regional parliament of West Bengal, the party allied itself with the Congress Party, but won only 60 of the 294 constituencies in the election. The communists again won the election. In the regional elections of the following years, the party also performed rather disappointingly. 2003 Banerjee let her party again participate in the NDA government and served from September 8, 2003 to January 8, 2004 as Cabinet Minister without portfolio and from January 9, 2004 to May 2004 as Cabinet Minister for Coal and Mining. In India's 2004 general election , Banerjee's party won only one constituency (out of 42) in West Bengal - Banerjee's constituency 23-Calcutta South . Banerjee's party was not very successful with 29 out of 294 electoral districts won in the 2006 election to West Bengal's parliament, which the AITC again competed in alliance with the BJP.

Resurgence of the Trinamool Congress from 2006

The dispute over the chemical plant in Nandigram ( Purba Medinipur district , West Bengal) developed into a turning point . The West Bengali CPI (M) government under Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya had granted the Salim Group the concession to build a chemical plant, which was opposed by the villagers. Banerjee and her party led a movement that agitated against land expropriations and forced relocations. On March 14, 2007, 14 villagers were killed in clashes with the police. In November 2006 Banerjee protested with the AITC against a similar industrial project by Tata Motors in Singur ( Hugli district ). Banerjee began a public hunger strike, which she held for over 25 days and only broke off on December 28, 2008 after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's public appeal . These actions were applauded by international human rights activists and earned Mamata Banerjee a reputation for being an uncompromising fighter for the rights of the underprivileged. In the following period, the popularity of Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal increased dramatically. In the Indian parliamentary elections of 2009 , the party became the strongest party in West Bengal with 31% of the vote and 19 constituencies won, relegating the CPI (M), which had occupied this place since 1971 , to second place. From May 22, 2009 to May 19, 2011, Banerjee was the successor to Lalu Prasad Yadav as Railway Minister in India in the Manmohan Singh II cabinet .

Chief Minister of West Bengal

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is greeted by newly elected Chief Minister Banerjee on a visit to Kolkata
Mamata Banerjee at the opening of the Kolkata Book Fair ( Kolkata Book Fair ) 2014
Chief Minister Banerjee with Prime Minister Narendra Modi (2017)

The Trinamool Congress continued to gain popularity and, under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, won the election to the West Bengal parliament in April / May 2011. This ended 34 years of uninterrupted communist government in this state. On May 20, 2011, Banerjee was sworn in as Chief Minister of West Bengal. On October 9, 2011, she resigned her parliamentary mandate in the Lok Sabha. In the subsequent election in 2016, the Trinamool Congress even achieved a two-thirds majority in the West Bengal parliament, and Banerjee took up her second term as Chief Minister on May 27, 2016.

Political style

Mamata Banerjee is known for her boisterous and impulsive political style. In the English-language press it is often referred to as a firebrand , a "hot spur". She was described as the “ archetype of a rebel” and did not shy away from any political conflicts, neither with the Congress party leadership (before 1998), nor with the communists who dominated the political landscape of West Bengal (1998 to 2011), nor with other political opponents. In February 2019, she quarreled with the Indian government when it wanted CBI investigators to question the Calcutta police chief about alleged fraud. Her political style can be described as opportunistic and populist - initially (from 1998) she allied herself with the BJP, after 2001 with the Congress Party, in 2004 again with the BJP and from 2009 to 2012 with the Congress Party. She skilfully took up the issue of land expropriations as part of the controversial policy of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in West Bengal. The apparently paradoxical constellation arose that the communist government of West Bengal pursued a policy of land expropriation of small farmers in favor of private investors, while Mamata Banerjee with her Trinamool Congress agitated against it with Marxist rhetoric and presented herself as an advocate for the poor and underprivileged. Banerjee uses popular rhetoric at election campaign events and is often celebrated enthusiastically as a savior by her supporters.

Mamata Banerjee is considered one of the most influential politicians in India. In 2012, American Time magazine listed her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Personal

Mamata Banerjee is unmarried and has no children. It maintains a simple frugal lifestyle gandhischer embossing. During public appearances, she is usually dressed in a simple, single-colored sari into which the party colors of the Trinamool Congress are woven. She does not wear jewelery, cosmetics, etc. She is considered to be absolutely incorruptible.

Web links

Commons : Mamata Banerjee  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dipak Ghosh: Mamata Banerjee as I have known her , p. 23 f.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Fifteenth Lok Sabha: Members Bioprofile. Lok Sabha website, accessed on February 5, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b c Election Results - Full Statistical Reports. Indian Election Commission, accessed on December 22, 2018 (English, election results of all Indian elections to the Lok Sabha and the parliaments of the states since independence).
  4. ^ Mamata gets the ax. rediff.com, December 22, 1997, accessed February 5, 2019 .
  5. ↑ All India Trinamool Congress: Biography of Mamata Banerjee ( Memento of the original from February 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / aitmc.org
  6. ↑ Kenneth Bo Nielsen: Mamata Banerjee - Redefining Female Leadership . In: Arild Engelsen Ruud, Geir Heierstad (Eds.): India's Democracies - Diversity, Cooptation, Resistance . Universitetsforlaget AS, Oslo 2016, ISBN 978-82-15-02688-6 , chap. 5, p. 101-134 , doi : 10.18261 / 9788215026886-2016 (English, online ).
  7. ↑ a b c d Trinamool: From a Congress breakaway to Bengal's principal party. rediff.com, May 13, 2011, accessed February 5, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Syed Firdaus Ashraf: The rediff special: The X factor. rediff.com, November 8, 2000, accessed February 5, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Valson Thampu: Operation West End. The Hindu, March 20, 2001, accessed February 5, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Soutik Biswas: The Reds are out, the Greens are in! BBC News, May 13, 2011, accessed February 4, 2019 .
  11. ^ Mamata Banerjee sworn in as West Bengal chief minister. The Times of Indis, May 20, 2011, accessed February 4, 2019 .
  12. ^ Mamata Banerjee sworn in as West Bengal chief minister. The Times of India, May 27, 2016, accessed February 4, 2019 .
  13. ↑ a b c d Profile: Bengal firebrand Mamata Banerjee. BBC News, May 13, 2011, accessed February 4, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Abhimanyu Bose: Mamata Banerjee On Dharna In Kolkata, Supporters Keep The Protest Going. NDTV, February 4, 2019, accessed on February 4, 2019 .
  15. ^ Kolkata Film festival: Shah Rukh Khan praises West Bengal Mamata Banerjee, calls her a firebrand leader. indiatoday.in, November 10, 2012, accessed on February 4, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Anindita Sanyal: Mamata Banerjee's All-Nighter "Satyagraha" As Cops, CBI Clash: 10 Points. NDTV, February 4, 2019, accessed on February 7, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Soutik Biswas: The woman taking on India's communists. BBC News, April 15, 2011, accessed February 7, 2019 .
  18. ↑ The World's 100 Most Influential People: 2012. Time Magazine, accessed February 4, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Banerjee, Mamata
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian politician
DATE OF BIRTH 5th January 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Calcutta , India