From school politics to the national stage, the Bengal chief minister has always been a giant slayer. A look at Didi through the years.

Early days: Mamata Banerjee as a youth leader.

On election trail with then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Krishna Bose. Notice the demure expression! HT

Not yet the political mover and shaker, Mamata Banerjee still makes her point forcefully.

October 14, 1999: The Trinamool Congress leader replaced Nitish Kumar, who resigned over one of India’s worst train crashes, as the new railway minister. AFP

As leader of the Trinamool Congress, Mamata participates in an NDA meeting in New Delhi. This followed her re-entry in the NDA coalition in 2001. HT

The activist phase: Banerjee participating in a demonstration in New Delhi on 3 July 2007 against police atrocities in Singur and Nandigram. HT

Mamata has always had assorted bedfellows: With Amar Singh and Medha Patkar at the Trinamool Congress’s sit-in demonstration at Singur in 2008.

The softer side of a toughie: Banerjee paints at her residence at Kalighat, Kolkata, on 6 January 2011. HT

With her mentor and dada: Sharing the stage with Pranab Mukherjee on the completion of one year of the second term of the UPA government at Prime Minister’s residence in New Delhi. HT

The pinnacle: At the oath-taking-ceremony at Raj Bhavan on 20 May 2011 when she took over as Bengal’s first woman chief minister. Mint

Once a rebel, always a rebel: As West Bengal’s CM, Didi addresses a rally at Brigade Parade Ground on 21 July 2011. Mint

Woman power: With US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, at the Writers’ Building in Kolkata on 7 May 2012. AFP