Mamata Roy is an Indian

anganwadi worker An Anganwadi is a type of rural child care centre in India. They were started by the Indian government in 1975 as part of the Integrated Child Development Services program to combat child hunger and malnutrition. ''Anganwadi'' in Hi ...

and former member of the

West Bengal Legislative Assembly The West Bengal Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian states and territories of India, state of West Bengal. It is located in the B. B. D. Bagh area of Kolkata, the capital of the state. Members of the Legislative as ...

. Between 2011–2016, she served as the representative of the Dhupguri constituency and as a member of the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in term ...

Personal life

Mamata Roy is a resident of

Dhupguri Dhupguri is a town and a municipality of Jalpaiguri district near Jaldhaka River in the state of West Bengal, India. Geography General Dhupguri has an average elevation of 80 metres (262 feet), and is a municipality in the Jalpaigur ...

town in the

Jalpaiguri district Jalpaiguri district () is a district of the Indian state of West Bengal. The district was established in 1869 during British Raj. The headquarters of the district are in the city of Jalpaiguri, which is also the divisional headquarters of No ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

. She received her education from the Bairatiguri High School from where she passed out in 1992 and became an

Integrated Child Development Services Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is a government program in India which provides nutritional meals, preschool education, primary healthcare, immunization, health check-up and referral services to children under 6 years of age and their ...

worker. Roy identifies herself as a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

Political career

In the 2007 elections for the municipality of Dhupguri, Roy contested as a candidate of the

and was elected from ward number 7, polling at 58.92% of the votes cast in her favor. Before the

2011 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election Assembly election was held in Indian state of West Bengal in 2011 to elect the members of West Bengal Legislative Assembly as the term of the incumbent government was about to expire naturally. It was held in six phases between 18 April and 10 ...

, the communist party denied re-nomination for the legislator Laxmi Kanta Roy, two term incumbent from the Dhupguri constituency and instead nominated Roy to contest as the party candidate. Subsequently, she emerged as the winning candidate against her primary opponent, Mina Barman who was the wife of the

Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress (English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West Bengal. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee, the cur ...

's district head and was therefore was nominated as their candidate. Roy won the election polling at 42.25% of the votes cast in her favor against 39.82% of the votes cast in favor of Barman. During her tenure as the representative of the constituency, she was involved in organising a protest movement launched by the communist party in the Dhupguri area after a teenage girl was raped and murdered. The girl herself had earlier protested against a

kangaroo court A kangaroo court is a court that ignores recognized standards of law or justice, carries little or no official standing in the territory within which it resides, and is typically convened ad hoc. A kangaroo court may ignore due process and come ...

who had assaulted her farmer father over a equipment renting dispute; the kangaroo court was notably held in the presence of local leaders of the Trinamool Congress. Roy was also involved in raising concerns and agitating against instances of starvation deaths in the tea gardens, and the lack of communication with local bodies and non-appointment of teachers by the state government in local educational institutions. In the

2016 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election A Legislative Assembly election was held in 2016 for the 294 seats (out of 295 seats) of the '' Vidhan Sabha'' (Vidhān Sabhā) in the state of West Bengal in India. The All India Trinamool Congress under Mamata Banerjee won 211 seats, and th ...

, she lost her seat in the legislature to the new Trinamool Congress candidate Mitali Roy, who had contested as an independent candidate in the previous election. In August 2020, Roy testified that she was contacted by the Trinamool Congress and presented with an offer to her supply her with funds to contest the

2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election The 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election for 292 of the 294 constituencies in West Bengal was held between 27 March to 29 April 2021 in eight phases. Voting for the two remaining constituencies was delayed to 30 September 2021. The ...

as their candidate from the constituency, which she refused. The incident was corroborated by Laxmi Kanta Roy who testified that a similar offer was rejected by him a few days earlier.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roy, Mamata Living people Women in West Bengal politics Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians from West Bengal Year of birth missing (living people)