Three people in a car tried to kill me: Mamata Banerjee

July 26th, 2009 KOLKATA - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Sunday expressed concern over the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, saying it has endangered the people's economic security. "I am very upset with the recent price-rise in the country.

July 9th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday said her ministry would look at providing infrastructure and land for setting up Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). "We might even look at building IITs in the future," Banerjee told the Lok Sabha in a discussion on the railway budget.

June 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday said the whole Lalgarh incident was stage-managed by the ruling Left Front, and asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to side with the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). "They (CPI-M) have created Maoists in the country and now they are using it to their own end to regain their lost ground," Banerjee told reporters here.

June 23rd, 2009 KOLKATA - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee has imposed restrictions on foreign tours by officials of her ministry. "It is not possible to stop foreign tours when transfer of technology is required, but we will try to restrict tours for other purposes," Banerjee told reporters after an official function here.

June 13th, 2009 KOLKATA - Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee called on ailing former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu Saturday night and said the veteran Marxist had congratulated her on her party's thumping win in the Lok Sabha polls. However, Banerjee emerged from the meeting a trifle annoyed, saying Basu had been tutored not to say anything else to her.

May 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, whose party is one of the biggest partners in the victorious UPA, said Thursday she is keen on a stable central government and wouldn't mind even if the Congress doesn't give her party 'anything'. 'Even if they don't give us anything we don't mind that,' Banerjee told reporters here after a meeting with Congress leaders over distribution of ministerial berths in the new United Progressive Alliance government.

May 17th, 2009 KOLKATA - Refusing to indulge in political bargaining, Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday said that she is ready to support the new United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre. "The Trinamool Congress will support and work with the Congress-led government at the Centre.

May 16th, 2009 KOLKATA - Rejoicing at her victory in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Saturday said despite so many brutal killings and the Left's efforts to stop people from voting, 'we have won'. 'This victory is that of the people despite the attempts of the CPI-M, the party that killed our political workers,' Banerjee told reporters here.

May 16th, 2009 KOLKATA - Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee registered her sixth consecutive victory from the Kolkata South Lok Sabha seat, trouncing her nearest rival, Rabin Deb of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) by 219,571 votes. Banerjee, who has been winning from this seat since 1991, had defeated Deb in 2004 also.

May 13th, 2009 KOLKATA - Alleging rigging and intimidation by West Bengal's ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) cadres in the final phase of polls, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Wednesday said the Marxists 'did not have faith in the common people'. 'A person who serves as the election agent of the chief minister (Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee) is indulging in rigging.

April 29th, 2009 KOLKATA - The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) prime ministerial candidate, L K Advani, on Wednesday laid the onus on Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to choose between the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Talking to reporters at the airport after arriving in the city to campaign for the elections, Advani said, "Mamata has to decide whether she wants to join the NDA or stay with the Congress." Advani clarified that the decision to leave the NDA and join hands with the Congress was solely taken by Banerjee.

April 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - It was an unusual sight. Residents of South Kolkata were startled to find hundreds of Mamata Banerjees walking in a procession, canvassing for votes for the Trinamool Congress chief.

April 3rd, 2009 KOLKATA - Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has said that she will not ride Tata's Nano car because it was "manufactured with the people's blood." "I will not ride the Nano which has been manufactured with the people's blood," Banerjee said in Kolkata. Mamta's party's anti-land acquisition agitation led to the shifting of Tata's Nano manufacturing factory from West Bengal.

March 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A group of Trinamool Congress workers came all the way from Nadia district in West Bengal and held a demonstration before the spartan single-storey residence of party chief Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata, asking for poll nominations. This prompted a top party leader to say: 'Just because 'didi' (Banerjee) is so approachable and lives in a shabby house, you had the guts to come here.

March 14th, 2009 KOLKATA - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday fielded a woman candidate against Mamata Banerjee for the Lok Sabha's Kolkata South seat after Trinamool Congress snapped ties with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to team up with the Congress in West Bengal. BJP sources here said the party's state Mahila Morcha (women's wing) president Jyotsna Banerjee has been nominated for the prestigious constituency.