--- description: Find out why Mamata Banerjee is one of the 100 most influential people of 2021. title: Mamata Banerjee: The 100 Most Influential People of 2021 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta64b2adb349fc5a8/698a1cb28fd2ee375d362e29/mamata-banerjee-time-100-2021.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 15, 2021 # Mamata Banerjee by Barkha Dutt  Mamata Banerjee Prashanth Vishwanathan—Bloomberg/Getty Images Mamata Banerjee Prashanth Vishwanathan—Bloomberg/Getty ImagesPrashanth Vishwanathan—Bloomberg/Getty Images Mamata Banerjee, in her signature white sari paired with rubber flip-flops, has become the face of fierceness in Indian politics. On May 2, she stood like a fortress against the expansionist ambition of Narendra Modi, a seemingly invincible Prime Minister, when she retained her role of chief minister of West Bengal in the state’s assembly elections, despite the money and men of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Unlike many other women in Indian politics, Mamata has never been framed as someone’s wife, mother, daughter or partner. She rose from abject poverty—working once as a stenographer and a milk-booth vendor to support her family. Of Banerjee, it is said, she doesn’t lead her party, the Trinamool Congress—she is the party. The street-fighter spirit and self-made life in a patriarchal culture set her apart. If any coalition of forces were to come together to [counter Modi nationally](https://time.com/5948112/academic-freedom-india-mehta/ "undefined"), Mamata is almost certain to be the pivot. _Dutt is an Indian television journalist and author_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6096016/mamata-banerjee/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6096016/mamata-banerjee/"},"headline":"Mamata Banerjee","datePublished":"2021-09-15T11:15:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:21:57.390Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6096016/mamata-banerjee/","keywords":["TIME 100","franchise","T100 2021","T100 2021 Leaders"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta64b2adb349fc5a8/698a1cb28fd2ee375d362e29/mamata-banerjee-time-100-2021.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta64b2adb349fc5a8/698a1cb28fd2ee375d362e29/mamata-banerjee-time-100-2021.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6096016/mamata-banerjee/","name":"Mamata Banerjee"}}]}] ```