CJ Kuncheria: Woman they call 'Big Sister' is no pushover

Mamata Banerjee has waged a three-decade long battle that has catapulted her to the upper echelons of India's turbulent politics.

Yesterday, by trumping one of the world's last democratically elected communist governments, she removed one of the loudest dissenting voices to the Congress-led government's economic reform efforts.

But her track record of opposing unpopular, fiscally necessary measures, such as raising fuel prices or cutting subsidies, also does not bode well for Congress.

"She is reckless, populist, anarchic. She is not a leader to run a government, although she can organise anti-government campaigns," Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya, a fellow in political science at Kolkata's Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, said.

The diminutive 56-year-old Banerjee, whose supporters call her "Big Sister", styles herself as a woman of the people. She is unmarried, lives with her mother and wears simple cotton saris and flip flops.

But that matronly appearance fronts a core of steel, which has pushed her into the ranks of India's powerful women politicians who have resonated with an ancient tradition of revering virginal mother figures.

She is a worshipper of Kali, the foremost of those awe-inspiring figures, who is often depicted as dancing in a frenzy after a bloody victory over demons.

Banerjee once dragged an opponent by the collar during a scuffle over women's rights in parliament, forced the relocation of a plant to build the world's cheapest car and had her skull cracked by communist thugs in the 1990s. Her stature as the communists' most formidable opponent was confirmed in 2007, when she took over the leadership of peasants enraged by the government's acquisition of their land for industrial use.