PM Modi Extends Birthday Greetings to West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday extended birthday greetings to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and wished her good health and a long life. In his greeting message posted on his X handle, the Prime Minister wrote, “Birthday wishes to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Didi. I pray for her good health and long life,” read the message from the Prime Minister.

For the last few years, the Prime Minister has not missed a single opportunity to wish Mamata Banerjee on this day and every year, he wishes the Trinamool supremo on this day. The birthday wishes from the Prime Minister come in the backdrop of confusion over the actual date of birth of the Chief Minister, which she herself raised last year, just three days after the Prime Minister extended birthday wishes to her on the same day, January 5. On January 8, 2025, while addressing a state government programme in Kolkata, the Chief Minister claimed that she had turned 65 on the day and not 70 as said by the Prime Minister in his birthday greetings.

She, however, admitted then, as per official records, though she turned 70 on January 5 last year. She claimed that her year of birth was extended by five years by her father during her enrolment in a local school, which she was not aware of before. “During my graduation days, my elder brother Ajit Banerjee informed me about that. He also informed me that as per the certificate, the age difference between him and me is just six years,” Banerjee said on January 8 last year.

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Earlier, in her 1995 memoir ‘Ekante’, the Chief Minister wrote about her birth, which took place during Durga Puja. The puja is usually held at the end of September or the beginning of October as per the Hindu calendar. According to official records, Banerjee was born on January 5, 1955. So, by that record, she had turned 71 on Monday. Mamata Banerjee became the Chief Minister of West Bengal in 2011, ending the 34-year Left Front rule, and subsequently, her party won in two consecutive state Assembly elections, first in 2016 and then in 2021.

She is the first woman Chief Minister of West Bengal. As the then-opposition leader in West Bengal, she had organised several protest movements against the then-Left Front government. She was initially associated with Congress but later broke off to form her own party — Trinamool Congress. However, in the 2009 Lok Sabha election and 2011 state Assembly elections, Trinamool Congress had an alliance with Congress. But, in the 2016 West Bengal Assembly polls, Congress parted ways with Trinamool and formed an alliance with the Left Front, which continued till the general elections in 2024.