Query: Mamata Banerjee was banned from any political office positions in India in 2001.

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West Bengal <=SEP=> West Bengal ( -LSB- wɛst_bEN ` gawl -RSB- ) is an Indian state , located in Eastern India on the Bay of Bengal . It is India 's fourth-most populous state , with over 91 million inhabitants ( as of 2011 ) . It has an area of 34267 sqmi . A part of the ethno-linguistic Bengal region , it borders Bangladesh in the east , and Nepal and Bhutan in the north ; it borders five Indian states , Odisha , Jharkhand , Bihar , Sikkim and Assam . The state capital is Kolkata ( Calcutta ) , the seventh-largest city in India . The geography of West Bengal includes the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region in its extreme north , the Ganges delta , the Rarh region and the coastal Sundarbans . The main ethnic group are the Bengalis , with Bengali Hindus forming the demographic majority .   Ancient Bengal was the site of several major janapadas . In the 2nd century BC , the region was conquered by the emperor Ashoka . In the 4th century AD , it was absorbed into the Gupta Empire . From the 13th century onward , the region was ruled by several sultans , powerful Hindu states and Baro-Bhuyan landlords , until the beginning of British rule in the 18th century . The British East India Company cemented their hold on the region following the Battle of Plassey in 1757 , and Calcutta served for many years as the capital of British India . The early and prolonged exposure to British administration resulted in expansion of Western education , culminating in development in science , institutional education , and social reforms of the region , including what became known as the Bengal Renaissance . A hotbed of the Indian independence movement through the early 20th century , Bengal was divided during India 's independence in 1947 along religious lines into two separate entities : West Bengal -- a state of India -- and East Bengal -- a part of the newly created Pakistan -- later becoming Bangladesh in 1971 . Between 1977 and 2011 , the state was administered by the world 's longest elected Communist government .   A major agricultural producer , West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributing state to India 's net domestic product . The state capital Kolkata is known as the `` cultural capital of India '' . The state 's cultural heritage , besides varied folk traditions , ranges from notable authors in literature including Nobel-laureate Rabindranath Tagore to scores of musicians , film-makers and artists . West Bengal is also distinct from most other Indian states in its appreciation and practice of playing association football besides cricket , the national favourite sport .

Mamata Banerjee <=SEP=> Mamata Banerjee ( -LSB- mɔmɔt̪a bɔnd̪d̪oˈpad̪ʱˈae̯ -RSB- ( Bengali - মমতা বন্দপাধ্যায় ) also known as Didi was born 5 January 1955 ) is an Indian politician who has been Chief Minister of West Bengal since 2011 . She is the first woman to hold the office . Banerjee founded the party All India Trinamool Congress ( AITMC or TMC ) in 1997 and became its chairperson , after separating from the Indian National Congress . She is often referred to as Didi ( meaning elder sister in Hindi and Bengali ) .   Banerjee previously served as the Minister of Railways twice and is also the first woman Railway Minister of India , Minister of Coal , and Minister of State for Human Resource Development , Department of Youth Affairs and Sports and Women and Child Development in the cabinet of the Indian government . She rose to prominence after opposing the erstwhile land acquisition policies for industrialisation by the Communist government in West Bengal for Special Economic Zones at the cost of agriculturalists and farmers at Singur . In 2011 Banerjee pulled off a landslide victory for the TMC Congress alliance in West Bengal , defeating the 34-year-old Communist Party of India ( Marxist ) - led Left Front government , the world 's longest-serving democratically elected communist government in the process .   In 2012 , Time magazine named her one of the `` 100 Most influential People in the World '' . In September 2012 Bloomberg Markets magazine listed her among the 50 most influential people in the world of finance . The TMC leader was voted in May 2013 as India 's most honest politician in an internal poll by members of India Against Corruption , India 's largest anti-corruption coalition .

List of Chief Ministers of West Bengal <=SEP=> The Chief Minister of West Bengal is the chief executive of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal . As per the Constitution of India , the governor is a state 's de jure head , but de facto executive authority rests with the chief minister . Following elections to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly , the state 's governor usually invites the party ( or coalition ) with a majority of seats to form the government . The governor appoints the chief minister , whose council of ministers are collectively responsible to the assembly . Given that he has the confidence of the assembly , the chief minister 's term is for five years and is subject to no term limits .   West Bengal origins lie in Bengal , a province of the British Raj that included present-day Bangladesh . Between 1937 and 1947 it was intermittently governed by a popularly elected ministry , whose head is often designated the Premier of Bengal . In 1947 , Bengal province was partitioned into the Indian state of West Bengal and East Pakistan . All three erstwhile Bengal premiers -- A. K. Fazlul Huq , Khawaja Nazimuddin and H. S. Suhrawardy -- became Pakistani citizens ; the latter two went on to become Prime Ministers of Pakistan in the 1950s .   Since 1947 , there have been eight Chief Ministers of West Bengal . The first was Prafulla Chandra Ghosh of the Indian National Congress , who was succeeded by his party-mates Bidhan Chandra Roy and Prafulla Chandra Sen. A decade of instability followed , marred by fractious coalition governments and frequent impositions of President 's rule . The instability ended with 1977 election victory of the Communist Party of India ( Marxist ) ( CPM ) . Headed by Jyoti Basu , the CPM-led Left Front government was in office for over 23 years ( 1977 -- 2000 ) , making Basu India 's longest-serving chief minister ever . Left rule in West Bengal continued for another 10 years under Buddhadeb Bhattacharya , before its defeat in the 2011 election by the Trinamool Congress . Appointed on 20 May 2011 , Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee is the current incumbent , the state 's first woman chief minister .