Congress MP from West Bengal Mausam Noor defects to Trinamool Congress

In a major blow to the Congress, Bengal’s youngest Lok Sabha MP from Malda North constituency, Mausam Noor, joined Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday evening. She is the first Congress MP from the state to defect to the ruling side ever since Mamata Banerjee came to power in 2011.

Noor, niece of legendary Bengal Congress leader and former Union minister, late ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury, is a two-time MP. During his lifetime, Khan Chaudhury was virtually worshipped by Bengal’s Congress supporters.

Mausam is the daughter of Khan Chaudhury’s sister, late Ruby Noor, who was a four-time Congress MLA from Sujapur in Malda. Immediately after the defection, Noor was made a general secretary of TMC and given charge of four districts.

“I joined TMC because Mamata Banerjee is the most popular leader here. Steps she has taken to secure the position of Muslims in India remain unmatched. Nobody decried the brutal killing of Afrazul Khan in Rajasthan or stood by flood-affected people of Malda the way she did. I want to work under her leadership,” Noor said, standing next to the chief minister at the state secretariat.

“She is an MP at present. You will get to know in time which seat she will contest,” said Banerjee. The defection came barely a week after Congress president Rahul Gandhi and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi sent congratulatory messages to Mamata Banerjee for organising the mega opposition rally.

First Published: Jan 28, 2019 23:26 IST