On 13 May 2011, Mamata Banerjee, leader of the All India Trinamool Congress, defeated the Left Front to become the state's first female chief minister. It was her rallying cry of poriborton, and her slogan, Ma, Mati, Manush (Mother, Earth, People), which captured the imagination of the people and led to her landslide victory, ending the decades-long dominance of the Left Front. But what triggered this change? And what were the conditions which enabled the Left Front to win election after electio