Mausam Noor's Congress return and reckoning: Comeback, legacy politics, and Malda’s uncertain future

Mausam Benazir Noor’s recent return to the Congress from the Trinamul Congress (TMC) has caused ripplesin West Bengal’s politics.

- RASHEED KIDWAI

Rajya Sabha MP Mausam Noor joins Congress Party in the presence of Congress General Secretary Ghulam Ahmad Mir (File photo).

Before she changed sides, Noor was a TMC-backed member of the Rajya Sabha whose term was going to end in April 2026. Those opposed to the TMC — a perceptively growing tribe — see this move, ahead of the state elections in West Bengal, as the metaphorical sailor jumping from a drowning ship. More than a Congress resurgence, Mausam Noor’s decision, they say, portends the TMC’selectoral fortunes tanking out in the key battleground of Malda district.

The legacy Noor refers to pertains to being the niece of the Congress stalwart A.B.A Ghani Khan Choudhury (popularly called ‘Barkat-da’) who served eight terms as the MP from Malda and was a minister in Indira and Rajiv Gandhi's cabinets. Noor became an MLA in 2008 from the family’s pocket borough of Sujapur constituency after her mother Rubi

Noor — married to A.B.A Ghani Khan Choudhury’s brother — died. Next year, she was elected to the Lok Sabha from Malda North and retained the seat in 2014. Noor’s cousin Isha Khan Choudhury is currently servingasa Congress MP from Malda South.

Noor however, needs to remember how her return to the Congress may seal her options. A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury had himself gota taste of “politician Sonia” months before Bengal assembly polls of 2001. Chowdhury, holding charge of WBPCC, had raised the bogey of ‘mahajot’ envisaging BJP becoming part of the grand alliance against the Left Rule.