Mamata Banerjee

Mamata Banerjee (Bengali pronunciation: [Mômota Bôndyopadhyay]; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who has been Chief Minister of West Bengal since 2011. She is the first woman to hold the office. Banerjee founded the party All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC or TMC) in 1997 and became its chairperson, after separating from the Indian National Congress. She is often referred to as Didi (meaning elder sister in Bengali). In 2011 Banerjee pulled off a landslide victory for the TMC Congress alliance in West Bengal by defeating the 34-year-old Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front government, the world's longest-serving democratically-elected communist government.