Clinton praises Mamata for overthrowing Left

Terming her trip to Kolkata as remarkable, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lauded West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, saying despite being a woman she successfully ended Left's 34-year-old in the state.

"I went last week to West Bengal in East India and had two remarkable experiences -- meeting the newly elected chief minister, a woman, who on her own started a new political party and built that political party over many years, and just successfully ousted Communist Party that had been in office for 30, 34 years or so, and who is trying now to govern a state with 90 million people in it," Clinton said.

Clinton was on a 3-day visit to India from May 7. Her visit was the first-ever by a US Secretary of State to Writers' Buildings to hold a meeting with a chief minister.

Both Clinton and Banerjee are listed among the 100 top influential people in world by Time magazine.