Mamatas Journey

The early years

After her win,Mamata Banerjees humble home-cum-party office at 30B,Harish Chatterjee Street,has been the focus of all attention. It was to this neighbourhood,once said to be one of the worst slums of South Kolkata,that the Banerjee family had migrated from Bankura district. In a family of six brothers and two sisters,Mamata was the eldest. The death of their father when she was merely 15 unsettled the family,but Mamata never let circumstances get the better of her. She later applied that same persistence to her political career as well.

While studying at the Jogamaya Devi College,Mamata also started working part-time for Haringhata Milk Supply,a state enterprise that supplied milk in the 70s in Kolkata. Those who knew her family closely then say that after her fathers death,she became almost a second mother to her younger siblings. Those were tough years for the family. When the siblings were growing up,space became a problem,with some of them squeezing in underneath the bed in their single-room house to sleep at night. It was some sort of a two-tier arrangement. Some on the bed,the rest beneath it, says a family member who didnt want to be named.

But through the hard times,the family stuck together. Every evening they would gather to share muri and chanachur puffed ricea ritual they still share.

There are other stories from those times. One of them is on how Mamata came to wear white sarees. Apparently,after her fathers death,she could not afford to buy clothes often,so would make do with her mothers sarees. From then on,she has stuck to wearing white sarees,like her mother.

For Mamatas ailing mother,Gayetri Banerjee,its a poignant moment to see her daughter ascend the throne at Writers Building from where she was once thrown out by policemen for holding a demonstration,demanding justice for a victim of rape by a CPM party cadre.

The giantkiller

Mamatas first major win came in 1984 when as a 29-year-old,she defeated CPM heavyweight Somnath Chatterjee for the Jadavpur Lok Sabha seat. Political watchers say this was one of those seats which the Congress high command had virtually written off and allotted to Mamata. But Mamata managed to pull off the impossible and as a result got noticed by Rajiv Gandhi.

But in the next elections,she fell to an anti-Congress wave,losing to the CPMs Malini Bhattacharya,a professor at Jadavpur University. However,Rajiv Gandhi made her the general-secretary of the All India Youth Congress. She shifted to Kolkata south in the 1991 Lok Sabha poll,retaining it for five consecutive terms.

Later,Mamatas frustration with the Congress leadership,both at the Centre and at the state,fuelled a revolt and she decided to launch her own party in 1997the All India Trinamool Congress,becoming a strong Opposition party that doggedly took on the Left.

In 1999,Mamata joined the National Democratic Alliance NDA government at the Centre led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and was given the Railways portfolio but her tenure as Railway Minister was short-lived.

Her split with the NDA in 2001 triggered one of the lowest points in her career. She aligned with the Congress in the State Assembly polls,hoping to get a majority,but the TMC-Congress alliance bagged only 86 seats. Her downslide continued and in 2004,she became the only TMC member to have won a Lok Sabha seat.

Turning a corner at Singur

Singur was an important turning point for Mamata. In 2006,she first went on a 26-day fast to oppose land acquisition for the Tatas Nano plant in Singur. She knew she was stepping into dangerous territory but she also knew it was a decision that could help broadbase her support. She had pockets of influence in urban centres,now she needed the rural masses to join her. Her campaign against forcible land grab around Singur and Nandigram caught the imagination of the rural poor. What followed was the exit of the Tatas from West Bengal and a chain of events that led to the fall of the Left in the state.

Despite her taking on the Left,Mamata has always had pronounced Left leanings. In fact,among the 30-plus organisations who joined her during her two-week-long siege of Singur,were several ultra Left outfits.

She has repeatedly said: I am not anti-Communist. I read Marx,I read Lenin. But the ones you see ruling in Bengal now are pseudo,fake Communists,out for a loot. Throw them out, she exhorted. She even invited the genuine Leftists to join her ranks because you will never breathe free with these thugs,she argued in public rallies.

In 2009,she teamed up with the Congress for the general elections and the TMC-led alliance that included the Socialist Unity Centre of India SUCI,won 27 of the states 42 seats. She went on to become Railway Minister for the second time.

Her political canvas

An indication of Mamatas rising stock over the years lies in the growing popularity and commercial success of her books and paintings. The sale of her books in the last one year has been phenomenal. Books worth about Rs 8 lakh have been sold. She has received a royalty of almost Rs 80,000 from the sale of her books in the last one year itself, says Sudhanshu Shekhar Dey of Deys Publishing Company,which publishes the Trinamool chiefs books. Bengali author Joy Goswami attributes the reason for the growth in sales to the peoples growing appetite to know Didi.

Mamatas paintings have been steadily climbing the popularity charts as well. At a solo exhibition of 98 of Mamatas drawings at Galerie 88 in Kolkata on the eve of the polls,14 were sold on the first day itself,hinting at the direction in which the political winds were blowing.

The prices of the paintings ranged from

Rs 50,000 to over Rs 10 lakh. Banglar ma,a painting that depicted the mother figure,was the most expensive of them all at Rs 12 lakh. Mamata reportedly started painting Banglar ma when Sachin Tendulkar got out during the India-Sri Lanka Cricket World Cup final on April 2 and her last stroke coincided with Mahendra Singh Dhonis match-winning six. She donated the nearly Rs 4 crore raised through the exhibition to the Trinamool poll funds. Apart from commercial success,her art has found some critical acclaim as well. Well-known artist Shuvaprasanna says,Her paintings depict a deep passion and spontaneity. The works do have aesthetic value.

There is a story behind Mamatas hobbies too. Apparently,she would keep awake in her office at night in order to attend to distress calls of her party workers in rural areas where they were sometimes attacked by CPM cadres. To keep awake,she would write and paint. Even now,she seldom sleeps before 3 a.m.,staying up painting and writingand rushing to trouble spots.

The campaign trail

Mamatas close associates recall that it was during a Saraswati Puja in her neighbourhood years ago that a young Mamata made a public speech for the first time. While returning from school,she stopped by to watch the function when a speaker invited people in the audience to come up on stage and speak. Overcoming her initial hesitation,Mamata mounted the podium and gave an impromptu speech. She spoke well and the organisers were happy and gave her two pieces of sandesh as reward. Over the years,Mamatas fiery speeches have become her signature style.

This election,Mamata ran one of the best campaigns West Bengal has ever seen,addressing as many as 250 rallies and meetings compared to about 25 by former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. People of all ages and from all walks of life attended her rallies where students and government employees rubbed shoulders with daily labourers and farmers. In a campaign where paribortan or change was the buzzword,Mamatas personal style showed a few signs of change as well. For one,she appeared to have tamed her temperament. There was an element of restraint and discipline even in her aggression. Her earlier impulsiveness gave way to a new-found composure. The recklessness with which she used to heap invectives at adversaries transcended into more measured and sharp criticisms. Her narrative at successive rallies was,I am positive. I am focussed. I know what can bring smiles to the people of Bengal.

And on Friday when the poll results were announced,there were many smiles around.