The Congress in West Bengal suffered a huge jolt on Monday with party MP from Malda North and a member of the Ghani Khan Chowdhury family, Mausam Benazir Noor, joined the ruling Trinamool Congress.
The incident followed the Congress state unit passing a stern message to its high command saying that any kind of adventurism with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will not be acceptable to the people of West Bengal. Banerjee continued poaching Congress leaders even after the grand rally in Kolkata a week ago, which she had termed as the United India rally.
Noor, a two-time Lok Sabha MP from Malda North, which has been targeted by the BJP this time as a prospective seat, is a niece of former Congress strongman Barkat Ghani Khan Chowdhury, who was the railway minister in the Indira Gandhi cabinet.
Noor on Monday went to state secretariat in Kolkata and met Banerjee after which her inclusion in the TMC was formalised. She has also been made general secretary of the party.
Banerjee called her an important personality to fight against the BJP in the state.
"Apart from Malda, she would be engaged in our campaigning in Murshidabad and the other belt," Banerjee said. The chief minister, however, did not mention which belt the young MP, who had been handpicked by Congress president Rahul Gandhi as a candidate ten years ago, would be engaged in. But party sources confirmed that Noor would be a campaigner in the Muslim belt in West Bengal.
"Without Mamata Banerjee, there is no other option against the BJP in Bengal. So I have joined her," Noor said after her induction into TMC.
Noor and his another uncle Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury—MP from Malda South and brother of Barkat da as Ghani Khan Chowdhury was fondly called—had earlier coined the idea of making an alliance with the TMC in the run up to the 2019 elections to save their fortress where the BJP has made huge inroads into.
BJP president Amit Shah, who was yet to recuperate from swine flu, appeared in Malda last week to hold a massive rally which was attended by a huge number of people. Shah's pitching for the Citizenship Bill in Malda was largely welcomed by the people who gave him a rousing reception. Emboldened by the rally, the BJP is now trying to bring Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Malda to step up their efforts to wrest both the seats from the Congress. With Noor's joining the TMC and his uncle Abu Hasem in the queue, the ruling party, which had little presence in Malda, has become a strong contender to give the BJP in both the seats a tough fight.
However, Noor's inclusion might lead to disgruntlement within the ranks of the local TMC leaders. It remains to be seen how Banerjee would handle it.
Sources said Rahul Gandhi recently asked state Congress president Somen Mitra to send him the list of candidates for all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. They said Banerjee began poaching Congress leaders after that information was leaked.
Congress's Rajya Sabha MP Pradip Bhattacharya reacted sharply to Noor joining the TMC.
"This is a clear opportunistic politics she (Noor) has played. I had personally asked her whether she would be joining the TMC or not. But she told me under no circumstance it's possible," said Bhattacharya.
He admitted that such political poaching of Banerjee would make it tough for the Congress to make an understanding with her in West Bengal or anywhere else.
"Her only target was to destroy the Congress and help the BJP," said he.