Didi: A Political Biography

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A timely biography of the woman who defeated the longest-serving communist government in the world Mamata Banerjee is many things to many people– to some she is a ‘performer’ on the stage of Indian politics; to others she is a spirited woman who made it despite having no male patrons, a leader who was tested to the limit and emerged on top. If she is adored as the quintessential woman next door who has none of the airs that mark Indian politicians, she is as strongly derided for her ‘theatricality’ and rhetoric.But everyone agrees that she is a fighter who never gives up. Overcoming severe odds to challenge three decades of Marxist rule in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, ‘Didi’ to the young and old, came up trumps to become the first woman chief minister of West Bengal. But her real challenge begins now. Will she be able to end the culture of violence and regenerate West Bengal economically and politically? Will she be able to go beyond being a rabble-rouser to become a sagacious and visionary leader? Or will her party follow in the footsteps of the CPI(M), dragging the state deeper into the abyss it has fallen into? In Didi, Monobina Gupta brings her experience as journalist and commentator on politics in the state of West Bengal to paint a fascinating portrait of one of the most important political figures in India today.

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Monobina Gupta studied in Calcutta University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. She has worked as a journalist with the Patriot, the Telegraph, Mail Today and Indo-Asian News Service. Her first book Left Politics in Bengal: Time Travels among Bhadralok Marxists was published in 2010. She is currently working with the Times of India.