Trinamool MP Mausam Noor returns to the Congress

In a major boost to the Congress party ahead of the Assembly election in West Bengal, Rajya Sabha MP of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) Mousam Noor joined the Congress party.

“West Bengal wants change,” the two-time Lok Sabha MP said after joining the Congress. She had complete faith in the Congress leadership and was willing to shoulder any responsibility the party offered her, Ms. Noor said.

She hails from the family of Congress leader and the late former Union Minister A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury, whose name remains synonymous with Congress party in Malda district decades after his passing.

Ms. Noor was a two-time Lok Sabha MP from Malda from the Congress party from 2009 to 2019, before she defected to the Trinamool Congress seven years ago.

She rejoined the Congress at the party headquarters in the presence of senior leaders Jairam Ramesh, Ghulam Ahmed Mir and West Bengal Congress president Shubhankar Sarkar. Her cousin Isha Khan Chowdhury, Congress MP from the Malda Dakshin Lok Sabha seat, was also present at the event.

“I am a member of Barkat sahib’s (A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury) family. I am carrying on his legacy. We had a family discussion and decided to return to the Congress,” she said.

She had sent her resignation letter to Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee, Ms. Noor told media persons. She would resign as Rajya Sabha MP, she added. Her tenure as an MP of the Upper House is likely to end in April 2026.

Despite severing her ties with Trinamool, Ms. Noor did not make any harsh comments about the party or Ms. Banerjee. “I joined Trinamool a few years ago. Trinamool also gave me an opportunity to work. It made me a Rajya Sabha MP, gave me the responsibility of district president also,” she said.

Ms. Noor is well-known in the State’s Malda district, where the Trinamool Congress is yet to establish its political dominance despite being in power in West Bengal for the past 15 years. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the Trinamool lost both the Lok Sabha seats in the district. The Malda Dakshin seat went to the Congress, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the Malda Uttar Lok Sabha seat.

Political observers believe Ms. Noor’s return will boost the Congress’s prospects in Malda district.

The Congress party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front had forged an electoral alliance over the past few elections in West Bengal, but the alliance has not yielded electoral outcomes in the highly bipolar politics of the State.

“Our aim is to strengthen the Congress. If the Congress is strong, the alliance will be strong. If the Congress is weak, the alliance will also be weak,” Ms. Noor said, when asked about the party’s alliance with the Left Front.