West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be the first Indian woman leader to speak at the coveted Oxford Union Debate when she participates in the event virtually on Wednesday.

Banerjee will be the first-ever woman chief minister from India to speak at the iconic event organised by the Oxford Union Debating Society. Had it not been for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, she would have travelled to Oxford to take party in the programme.

The 65-year-old had received the invitation for the event in July last year. Reportedly, more than 600 questions have been filed online, mostly by students.

“Banerjee, who became the first Indian woman CM to address the debate, had received the invitation from the Oxford Union in July,” PTI quoted a Nabnna official as saying.

“She will be answering questions from students during the debate, and has already received 600 online queries,” he said.

Banerjee would be speaking about the schemes of the state government like ‘Kanyashree’, ‘Rupasree’, ‘Krishak Bandhu’ and ‘Duare Bangla’. She would be highliting how these schemes had helped in the welfare of citizens.

Founded in 1823, The Oxford Union has featured several world leaders and luminaries as speakers, including US presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Regan, British prime ministers Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, physicist Albert Einstein and spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

Ahead of the next year’s West Bengal Assembly Elections, where the state’s governning party TMC is set to face a tough challenge from BJP, Banerjee’s participation in the internationally-famed event is sure to boost her and her party’s image.

Speaking of international recognition, Banerjee’s flagship project for the empowerment of girl child, Kanyashree, had received the United Nations’ highest public service award in 2017.

Beating 552 social sector schemes from 62 countries, Kanyashree was declared the winner for helping more than 40 lakh female students in West Bengal from 2011 to 2016.

Banerjee had visited Haugue in Netherlands to receive the award after she was invited by the UN.