VZCZCXRO5462
RR RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHDBU RUEHLH RUEHNEH RUEHPW
DE RUEHCI #0079/01 0791339
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 201339Z MAR 09
FM AMCONSUL KOLKATA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2314
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 2833

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KOLKATA 000079 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SCA/INS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KWMN IN
SUBJECT: WOMEN IN INDIA: MAMATA BANERJEE - WEST BENGAL FIGHTER AND 
DRAMA QUEEN 
 
REF: A. A) KOLKATA 78 
     ¶B. B) NEW DELHI 439 
     ¶C. C) NEW DELHI 394 
 
KOLKATA 00000079  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Firebrand communist-baiter Mamata Banerjee 
leads West Bengal's principal opposition party, the All India 
Trinamool Congress (AITC) that has aligned with Congress to 
challenge the Left Front's 32-year rule in the state.  An astute 
politician - six term parliamentarian - with an eye for 
theatrics, she formed her own party and throughout her career 
has alternated between the alliances led by the two national 
political parties, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress, 
for the best political deal.  Infamous, and unapologetic, for 
her role in "spoiling" the proposed industrial automobile 
investment by the Indian corporate house Tata, her populist and 
unpredictable measures worry elements of the business community 
in Kolkata.  However, her unrelenting fight to dislodge the 
Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M) in West Bengal has 
already resulted in what outside analysts view as a very 
favorable political alliance with Congress.  With a strong and 
loyal party following in West Bengal, particularly from her 
constituency in South Kolkata, and the political momentum gained 
from championing the views of farmers versus industry, she can 
be a political spoiler or enabler for any investment, including 
American, into the region.  In the event of successful AITC and 
Congress electoral results in the state and at the Center, she 
will be a likely United Progressive Alliance ministerial 
candidate, although her eyes are clearly on the Chief Minister's 
seat in West Bengal when it goes to the state polls in 2011. 
End Summary. 
 
¶2. (U) This cable is part of a Mission India reporting series on 
Women in India (Reftels B, C) and the upcoming Indian 
parliamentary elections. 
 
Lone Crusader 
 
¶3. (U) Mamata Banerjee leads the principal opposition AITC party 
in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal (Reftel A).  As a 
firebrand agitator, she emerged as the main challenge to the 
ruling Left Front headed by the CPI-M.  Without any political 
lineage or mentor, Banerjee stands in marked contrast to other 
women leaders in India - Sonia Gandhi, Mayawati, Rabri Devi and 
Jayalalitha - who either represent a political dynasty or became 
leaders with the backing of a "godfather".  Affectionately known 
as "Didi", (Bengali for elder sister) she has refused to use her 
gender or her socio-economic Brahmin caste (highest of the Hindu 
castes) for political gain.  She is the only female politician 
of her statue in West Bengal; however, she doesn't capitalize or 
campaign on this.  As the party founder, dominant personality, 
and only sitting parliamentarian she enjoys close to absolute 
power within her party. 
 
Humble Beginnings to National Role 
 
¶3. (U) Banerjee was born on January 5, 1955 into a lower 
middle-class family in Kolkata.  Her father had been a 
small-time Congress pre-Independence freedom fighter.  She 
joined student politics as a teenager and in 1984, at the age of 
29, was appointed as General Secretary of the All India Youth 
Congress and successfully contested and trounced the veteran 
Left parliamentarian Somnath Chatterjee from Jadavpur in the 
national elections in 1984.  She lost the Jadavpur seat in 1989, 
but returned to Parliament in 1991 representing South Kolkata 
and subsequently became Union Minister of State for Human 
Resource Development, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Women and 
Child Development. 
 
Her Own Party~ 
 
¶4. (U) In 1996 she was re-elected to Parliament for a third 
term, but found that not all of her Congress colleagues shared 
in her zeal to oppose the ruling Left Front in West Bengal.  She 
publicly lashed out at Congress leaders and labeled them the "B 
team" of the CPI-M and "watermelons" who were "red" at the core, 
but with a "green" exterior.  Her own party, along with the Left 
and the media, characterized her dramatic agitations as that of 
a hysterical "bull-in-a-china-shop".  In 1998, Banerjee left 
Congress and formed her own party, the AITC. 
 
~with her own Partners 
 
¶5. (U) With AITC Banerjee joined the BJP-led National Democratic 
Alliance and was rewarded with the post of Indian Minister for 
Railways in 1999.  However, in 2001 she resigned in protest of 
her government's alleged "corruption" (more likely for her own 
political ambitions) and re-aligned with Congress to contest the 
 
KOLKATA 00000079  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
2001 West Bengal state elections.  The AITC faired poorly and in 
2004 she re-aligned with NDA and became minister for Coal and 
Mines.  The same year she successfully contested national 
elections and was elected to parliament for her sixth term - the 
sole winner from AITC.  Thereafter Banerjee gradually distanced 
herself from the NDA, and focused more than ever on dislodging 
the Left from the West Bengal government. 
 
Leading the Movement Against Land Acquisition 
 
¶6. (SBU) In 2007, Banerjee dramatically emerged from the 
political doldrums to lead a mass movement in rural Bengal 
championing the cause of farmers, low income groups and 
religious minorities.  With her humble ways and fiery rhetoric, 
she came to be identified as a champion of the downtrodden.  She 
positioned herself as the leader of a farmers' movement to 
resist the CPI-M government's moves to acquire agricultural land 
for industry in the much publicized Nandigram and Singur 
villages.  In short, she projected herself as more left than 
"Left" and forced a humbling retreat by the CPI-M government in 
Nandigram and Singur while simultaneously striking a devastating 
blow to economic activity in the state.  (Privately, Banerjee 
and senior AITC interlocutors have clarified that they are not 
against industry per se, but that they need to be consulted and 
taken into confidence as one of the political stakeholders. 
They have not presented a clear alternative industrialization 
strategy.)  In the 2008 panchayat (local government) elections 
the AITC scored a major success, making inroads at all levels 
including wresting control of district level governmental bodies 
from the Left Front.  Most recently, Banerjee negotiated a very 
favorable electoral alliance with Congress, a "marriage of 
political convenience" to contest the upcoming parliamentary 
elections and challenge the Left. 
 
Comment - Mamata Mia! 
 
¶7. (SBU) Fearless, temperamental and aggressive, Mamata Banerjee 
has often been likened to a tigress.  Due to her unpredictable 
and high-strung nature, she has succeeded in occupying the 
political limelight in West Bengal as no other politician has. 
She has taken on the Left, when no other leader was willing, and 
has capitalized on Nandigram and Singur anger to mount what 
analysts view as the most credible challenge to Left Front rule 
in West Bengal since they came to power in 1977.  She will 
continue to ride the anti-land acquisition and populist wave, 
although her popularity with the farmers as the "woman that made 
Ratan Tata say `ta ta' to West Bengal" does not sit well with 
industrialists in the city.  However, on the other hand, some 
are secretly encouraged by the healthy dose of political 
competition in the state as it may break the deadlock and 
perceived sloth of the Left Front.  The common man identifies 
with her unsophisticated and humble ways, not least because she 
continues to live as an unmarried woman with her mother in the 
one room tenement where she grew up.   She can mobilize a crowd 
in minutes and has a keen eye towards theatrics, whether with an 
impromptu song at the local shopping center festival, or 
symbolically carrying the bloodied land of "Nandigram martyrs" 
throughout the state with her own campaign.   However, her 
dominance and the cult of personality have left the party 
institutionally weak, but one with a clear leader.  Her 
challenge is to overcome the criticism that she is "irrational" 
and "unpredictable", criticism earned even during her previous 
stints as Minister in Delhi, and prove that she can, and is 
ready to, govern the state of West Bengal.  About her desire and 
determination to become Chief Minister - no one has any 
questions about that. 
TAYLOR