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Mamata Banerjee invited to Harvard University
By siliconindia
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Tuesday, 06 September 2011, 01:47 IST |
7 Comments
So what brought Mamta Banerjee this invitation from a reputed foreign university? The leadership she displayed in the recently concluded elections in West Bengal has been forefront for this invite. Banerjee, who had been fighting the Left parties single handedly for the last 20 years, tasted victory when she ousted the powerful communist parities by a huge margin of 77 seats. However, it had been a long battle which she ultimately won.
In 1997, Banerjee founded the Trinammol Congress party and became its chair person. The party soon became a principal opposition to the Left rule in the state.
Apart from being active in her state, Banerjee has also been active in the national arena. She briefly held the Railway Minister post under the Vajpayee Government before breaking away from the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) in 2001. She returned to the cabinet in January 2004, holding the Ministry of Coal and Mines portfolio until the 2004 elections, in which she was the only Trinamool Congress member to win a Parliament seat from West Bengal.
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. In the same year, she resigned from her MP post to protest against the illegal infiltration of Bangladeshis into West Bengal.
In the 2009 General Elections, her party which was in alliance with UPA (United Progressive Alliance) won 26 seats which made Mamata the Railway Minister again. The year 2011 saw Trinamool Congress win the Assembly elections by a sweeping majority and Mamta Banerjee assumed the post of the Chief Minister of West Bengal.
