I Pray For Her Good Health And Long Life, PM Modi Wishes Mamata Banerjee On Her Birthday

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent birthday wishes to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, praying for her good health and a long life.

Taking to X, PM Modi posted, “Birthday wishes to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Didi. I pray for her good health and long life.”

In recent years, the Prime Minister has consistently marked the occasion by sending birthday wishes to Banerjee, and he has continued this practice annually.

The greetings this year come against the backdrop of uncertainty surrounding the Chief Minister’s actual date of birth, an issue she herself highlighted last year.

The clarification came three days after PM Modi had wished her on January 5.

On January 8, 2025, while speaking at a state government event in Kolkata, Banerjee stated that she had turned 65 on that day, disputing the age mentioned by the Prime Minister in his earlier message, which suggested she had turned 70.

She acknowledged, however, that according to official documents, she had completed 70 years on January 5 last year.

Banerjee explained that her year of birth had been recorded five years later by her father at the time of her admission to a local school, a fact she said she only discovered much later.

“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,” she recalled.

In her 1995 memoir Ekante, Banerjee had written that she was born during Durga Puja, which typically falls in late September or early October according to the Hindu calendar.

Official records, however, list her date of birth as January 5, 1955, which would place her age at 71 on Monday.

Political Career and Rise to Power

Banerjee assumed office as Chief Minister of West Bengal in 2011, bringing an end to the Left Front’s 34-year rule.

Under her leadership, her party went on to secure consecutive victories in the state Assembly elections in 2016 and 2021.

She is the first woman to hold the post of Chief Minister in West Bengal and, during her time as an opposition leader, led several mass protest movements against the then Left Front government.

Banerjee began her political career with the Congress before breaking away to establish the Trinamool Congress.

The party allied with the Congress during the 2009 Lok Sabha election and the 2011 state Assembly polls.

However, ahead of the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections, Congress severed ties with Trinamool and formed an alliance with the Left Front, an arrangement that continued until the 2024 general elections.