Mamata Banerjee, an Indian politician, was born on January 5, 1955, and has been the ninth and current chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal since May 20, 2011.
She was the first woman to occupy the position.
Mamata Banerjee became involved with politics when she was only 15.
She has kept a public appearance of austerity, wearing traditional Bengali clothing and shunning luxuries.
She is a self-taught painter and a poet and her 300 paintings were sold for ₹9crore.
She received an honorary doctorate from the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar and was also honoured with a Doctorate of Literature (D.Litt.) degree by Calcutta University.