Overview
- Mausam Benazir Noor rejoined the Congress on January 3 at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi in the presence of Jairam Ramesh, Ghulam Ahmed Mir, West Bengal Congress chief Shubhankar Sarkar and her cousin, MP Isha Khan Chowdhury.
- Noor said she has submitted her resignation to Mamata Banerjee and will submit her Rajya Sabha resignation on Monday, with her current term otherwise ending in April 2026.
- Congress leaders and observers say her return bolsters the party’s prospects in Malda, where her family retains influence, and she may be fielded from the district in the Assembly polls.
- TMC district leaders downplayed the move’s impact on their organisation, while party sources attributed her exit to uncertainty over another Rajya Sabha nomination and strained local relations.
- The BJP framed the defection as evidence that Muslim voters are moving away from Mamata Banerjee, casting the TMC as weakened ahead of the state elections.