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Mamta Mamta Banerjee is one of the most prominent Indian leaders of the present time. She is the only leader from West Bengal, who has challenged the three decades old communist rule in the state. It must be borne in mind that she had once defeated the most prominent CPI leader Somnath Chaterjee. In recently concluded state Panchayat elections she had defeated the ruling communist party  in the rural areas which are considered to be the later’s strong base. She has remained the Railway Minister of India during the rule of National Democratic Alliance government.

Career This firebrand woman leader was the youngest parliamentarians ever when was defeated the veteran communist leader Somnath Chaterjee in the Lok Sabha election in the year of 1984. She has been elected as a Member of Parliament form the state of West Bengal five times. Twice as a Congress member and trice as Trinamool Congress President. She was Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Women and Child Development during the rule of Rao government but had resigned form the cabinet because of government’s callous attitude towards the development of the sports in India. During her political career as a Congress leader she has always remained in headlines because of the unorthodox methods of agitation. Some times she had insulted the Parliament Members inside the Parliament and had to face criticism for her actions.

Ties In the year of 1997 she deserted the Congress party  and formed her own party named All India Trinamool Congress.  Her party emerged the main opposition party in her home state which dared to challenge the thirty years of rule of the communist party. In the year of 1998 she allied with the NDA alliance and was given the charge of Railway Ministry. But in 2000 she snapped her ties with the NDA and formed an alliance with the Congress Party to contest the West Bengal Assembly elections.

Agitation After that she has focused mainly on the state politics. During this time she successfully opposed the state government’s moves of industrialization. The result was it that some foreign companies who had decided to invest huge amounts departed from the state. Though with this move she has won the support of some rural sections but it has gave a severe setback to the industrialization in the state. She is currently in news for her ongoing agitation against the Singur Tata Nano car plant. But this time she has put herself in a tight spot. If Tata shuts down the Nano production  plant, which it has threatened to do, it will result in a loss of thousands of direct and indirect jobs and which will eradicate her main urban vote bank. It will not end here because many other interested inverters will also prefer to invest in some other parts of the country.