| Mamata banerjee is from an ordinary middle class family of Kalighat in Kolkata. She joined the Indian National Congress (Congress party) during her student days in 1970. She shot into fame in 1984 after she was elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament defeating Mr Somenath Chatterjee a very senior CPI(M) party leader and presently the Speaker of Lok Sabha, from Jadavpur constituency in Kolkata. She also served as the General Secretary of Yuva Congress, the youth wing of the party and also the women's wing. Though she lost the 1989 elections to the Lok Sabha, she made a come back by winning the South Kolkata seat in 1999, a seat re retains till date. This time she was given the portfolio of Minister of state for Sports in the Narasimha Rao government. Her spotless clean image, powerful oratory and uncompromising politics soon made her very popular in West Bengal and by mid 1992 she was undoubtedly the most popular Congress party leader from the state. In the month of September of the same year she demonstrated her popularity by organising a mammoth rally at the Brigade parade ground in Kolkata where approximately 10 Lakhs or 1 million people participated. Next day a leading daily compared her popularity with the Great Leader Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose! The infighting in the Congress party, opposition to any movement she started against the ruling Left front Government by her own fellow party leaders for strange reasons and an apparent strong resolve - not to make any move which could dislodge the ruling party from power by some Congress leaders, eventually led to her breaking away from the parent party and forming her new party called Trinamool Congress in 1997. Which immediately became the main opposition force in the State. In 1999 as a constituent of the Atal Behari Vajpeyi led NDA government at the Center, she was given the Railway Ministry. She resigned from the Govt. protesting against corruption in 2001 and was again given the Coal and Mining Ministry for some time till the elections in 2004. The political observers declared that she was too impulsive, acted more on her feelings and emotions than sound strategy and planning and thus her actions too immature by political standards in India. But that precisely made "Didi" or elder sister, more popular among the non-left masses in the state. Mamata Banerjee, the poet has declared that she is not a poet in the true sense of the term as her poetry does not have the requisite sweetness and rhythm. We find more of her oratory and slogans in her poem, which is only to be expected. Human suffering, human rights violations, political protests and statements are common ingredients of her poetry. A poet with a difference, she is not only satisfied by writing poetry about the miseries of the political down trodden, but she is also most of the time the first person to rush and stand by any such person in a misery. She writes poetry in English and Bengali. Click here to read more about her in the Member of Parliament's biographical page. Click here to visit the website of All India Trinamool Congress Party. মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায় সম্বন্ধে বাংলায় পড়তে চাইলে এখানে ক্লিক করুন |