Mamta Benergee - Women at the top

The firebrand orator, known as Didi, Mamta Benergee graduated with an honors degree in History, followed by a law degree from Kolkata.

Having joined politics in the 70s, she rose in the rank to become the general secretary of the state Women Congress in 1976. Leading an austere lifestyle throughout, she took up the issues of small farmers and in 1984 became one of India’s youngest ever MP.

She set up Trinamool Congress (TMC) in 1998 after falling out with the Congress party. Mamta hit the headlines for holding a Samajwadi Party MP by the collar and dragging him out of the well of the Lok Sabha to prevent him from protesting against the Women’s Reservation Bill.

Born on January 5, 1955 in Birbhum, West Bengal, she became Railway Minister twice – in 2009 on joining the National Democratic Alliance government and in 2010 on aligning with the United Progressive Alliance government.