Mamata will spend 7 days and 7 nights in office

West Bengal's new Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee promises to work without a break to learn the state of affairs of the administration; prefers to be called a 'commoner'

Mamata will spend 7 days and 7 nights in office

West Bengal's new Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee promises to work without a break to learn the state of affairs of the administration; prefers to be called a 'commoner'

West Bengal's new Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee yesterday promised to work day and night for seven days without break to learn the state of affairs of the administration.

Mamata Banerjee

Stating that she would not take a holiday on Saturday and Sunday, Banerjee addressed a huge crowd before her residence before leaving for Raj Bhavan, "I will work day and night at least for the next seven days without taking any off on Saturday or Sunday."

Stating that the state was on the brink of bankruptcy and the situation was "dismal," she said, "I will have to work now. I can't take a holiday."

Keeping in mind that people visited her at her residence all through the week, she said, "I will evolve a system so that I can meet people at least once a week."

Promising transparency in the administration and that she would endeavour to solve the people's problems, she said, "I assure you about transparency of our new government.

I expect people to come forward with their problems and I will do my best to solve them," Banerjee said. The new chief minister said she would work for peace and development.

"You voted us to power, you are the main pillars. I wish for the return of peace to Bengal. I seek your blessings to run the government smoothly and serve the people," she said.

Signposts to power
Making Singur and Nandigram the signposts of the march towards Writers' Buildings, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has made the Left Front, which sought to set up industry on farmland in West Bengal, eat humble pie after three decades.

The road has been hard and long for Banerjee who turned the battle cry for Porivortan (change) into a reality rising like a phoenix from the ashes of the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, when her tally plummeted to one just herself. Two years later, in the assembly elections, Trinamool was routed, ending up with just 30 seats.
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Since last year's Lok Sabha polls Banerjee used the anti-incumbency factor coupled with disillusionment, particularly among poor Muslim land owners with the Left Front's policy of land acquisition for industry to coin the slogan 'Ma, Mati, Manush' (mother, land, people) which immediately struck a chord.

But for the 56-year-old chairperson of the Trinamool Congress a party which she set up in 1998 after falling out with the Congress in West Bengal, it was no mean task. But 'Didi' (sister) as she is fondly called could successfully transform herself into a nemesis for the Left Front entrenched in West Bengal since 1977.

The seven-time MP successfully sold a vision of development, cashing in on the deep resentment among the middle class while promising jobs and development for unemployed youths.

Known for her simple style complete with a cotton sari and hawai chappals, Banerjee was the face of the opposition in West Bengal. But she also had to pay a price for it.

On August 16, 1990, Lalu Alam then a member of the DYFI, CPM's youth wing used a lathi to beat up Banerjee who suffered a fractured skull.

The 'common' leader
Shortly after her swearing-in as West Bengal's first woman chief minister yesterday, Mamata Banerjee said she would prefer to be called a commoner.

Asked how she was feeling now that she has become the chief minister, Banerjee quipped, "Yes, I am a chief minister. I would better prefer to be called a commoner."

Banerjee said she had a meeting with Governor M K Narayanan after the swearing-in on the development of the state and that she intended to talk to the Governor every week.

"Now I am going to the Writers' Building where I will hold a cabinet meeting. Thereafter I may speak to you," Banerjee said as she was leaving the Raj Bhavan.

Humble beginning
Born to a lower middle class family and daughter of freedom fighter Promileswar Banerjee, she entered politics by joining the Chhatra Parishad, the student wing of Congress, while studying at the Jogmaya Debi College in Kolkata in the 1970s.
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As a 29-year-old, Banerjee shot to limelight by pulling off a stunning victory over CPI-M heavyweight and now expelled party leader Somnath Chatterjee in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections in the Jadavpur constituency to become one of the youngest MPs.

During NDA rule under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Banerjee was Railway Minister in 1999 and for Coal and Mines in 2004. She was also a union minister without portfolio for a brief period in 2003-4.

Banerjee quit as railway minister and NDA in early 2001 in the wake of the Tehelka expose into defence deals to ally with Congress for the assembly elections in West Bengal, but could make no headway against the Marxists.