Mamata Banerjee turns 68: A look at her incredible political journey

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She became the General Secretary of state Mahila Congress (I) from 1976 to 1980.

In the 1984 Lok Sabha elections, she was elected from the Jadavpur seat in South Kolkata to become one of the youngest parliamentarians.

After her win, she became the general secretary of the All India Youth Congress.

Mamata Banerjee lost the Jadavpur seat in the general elections in 1989 but returned to Lok Sabha in 1991 from the Kolkata South constituency.

She was made the Union Minister of State for HRD, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Women & Child Development after her 1991 victory.

By the 1990s Banerjee had decided to separate from what she saw as a corrupt Congress. She also wanted to fight the ruling Communist Party of India directly in West Bengal. She founded the All India Trinamool (or Trinamul) Congress in 1997 to pursue her dream.

In 1999, Didi joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government where she was assigned Railway Ministry. She was the first woman to become a railway minister.

In 2000, she presented her first Railway Budget in which she introduced several new express trains in West Bengal.

In her career, Mamata Banerjee organised and led various protests and marches in the state against the policies and alleged atrocities of the Left Front government. She was often attacked by goons and heckled by the police, but her strong determination earned her the title of 'Bengal's tigress'.

Mamata's heroics in Singur, where she fought for the rights of farmers leading to the exit of Tata, got her international attention and she came to the forefront of West Bengal politics.

Towards the end of 2008, Mamata became an active part of the uprising against police atrocities at Lalgarh in the West Midnapore district.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha Elections, Trinamool Congress shook Left Front's foundation, bagging 19 MP seats.

Mamata Banerjee became the railway minister again and took over the Ministry of Railways from Lalu Prasad after the United Progressive Alliance stormed to power for the second consecutive term in 2009

In 2010, her party won the Kolkata Municipal elections and Mamata demanded early Assembly elections in the state after the win.

In the 2011 Assembly elections, in a historic victory, Mamata Banerjee toppled the Left Front government that had ruled West Bengal for 34 years.

The TMC alliance bagged 227 seats, and the TMC won 184 seats to mark a historic moment in Bengal politics.

Mamata Banerjee has worked with three Prime Ministers -- PV Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh. She has served as a Union Minister in both National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments and handled portfolios like Human Resource Development, Youth Affairs and Sports, Women and Child Development, Coal and Mines and the Railways.

In 2012, Time Magazine named her among the 100 most influential people in the world.

In the 2016 assembly elections, TMC once again won with a landslide majority under Mamata's leadership, winning a whopping 211 seats out of the total 293.

This time, the TMC contested the election alone and it became the first ruling party to win without an ally since 1962 in West Bengal.

During her tenure as the Chief Minister, some of Mamata’s cabinet ministers were accused of money laundering in the Saradha Group scam and the Rose Valley financial scandals.

In 2021, TMC registered a third consecutive victory in the assembly election. This time Mamata successfully took on the BJP juggernaut led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. TMC crossed the double-century mark bagging 213 out of the 294 seats.