Mausam Noor | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha | |
| In office 3 April 2020 – 5 January 2026 | |
| Constituency | West Bengal |
| Vice Chairperson of West Bengal Commission for Women | |
| Assumed office 2019 | |
| Chairperson | Leena Gangopadhyay |
| Preceded by | Mahua Panja |
| Member of Parliament,Lok Sabha | |
| In office 20 May 2009 – 23 May 2019 | |
| Preceded by | New constituency |
| Succeeded by | Khagen Murmu |
| Constituency | Maldaha Uttar |
| Member of Legislative Assembly,West Bengal | |
| In office 17 January 2009 – 16 May 2009 | |
| Preceded by | Rubi Noor |
| Succeeded by | Abu Nasar Khan Choudhury |
| Constituency | Sujapur |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1979-10-15)15 October 1979 (age 46)[1] |
| Party | Indian National Congress (2009–2019, 2026–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Trinamool Congress (2019–2026) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent |
|
| Residence(s) | Sahazalalpur, Malda City, Malda district |
| Alma mater | Calcutta University (LL.B.) |
| Profession | Advocate |
| Signature |  |
Mausam Benazir Noor (born 15 October 1979) is an Indian politician, who is a formerMember of Parliament, Rajya Sabha fromWest Bengal andVice Chairperson ofWest Bengal Commission for Women.[2] She wasPresident ofMalda districtTMC[3] and aMember of Lok Sabha forMaldaha Uttar from2009 until2019.
Noor comes from a politicalBengali Muslim family ofMalda, West Bengal. Her uncleA. B. A. Ghani Khan Choudhury wasMinister of Railways in theThird Indira Gandhi Ministry. She studied atLa Martiniere Calcutta and received a law degree fromCalcutta University. Mausam entered politics after her motherRubi Noor (the then incumbentMember of Legislative Assembly of West Bengal forSujapur constituency) died in 2008. In early 2009, she was elected to the Legislative Assembly from the same constituency and in May she was elected to theLok Sabha. Noor was elected president of the West Bengal Youth Congress in 2011. Two years later, she was elected president of theIndian National Congress Malda district unit. In January 2019, she switched toTrinamool Congress party after her proposal of an electoral alliance with the party for the2019 general election was turned down by thePradesh Congress Committee.
Noor belongs to a politicalBengali Muslim family from theMalda district. Her mother,Rubi Noor, was elected to theWest Bengal Legislative Assembly for three consecutive terms from theSujapur constituency. Rubi was married to her classmate and Mausam's father Syed Noor. She accompanied her husband to Canada before entering politics in 1991. Mausam has two elder sisters — Syeda Saleha Noor and Sonya Sarah Noor.[4][5][6]
One of Noor's uncles,A. B. A. Ghani Khan Choudhury, served asMinister of Railways in theThird Indira Gandhi ministry. Her other uncle,Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, is serving as aMember of Parliament for theMaldaha Dakshin constituency.[7] Abu Hasem's son,Isha Khan Choudhury, is a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and represents the Sujapur constituency.[8][9]
Noor studied atLa Martiniere Calcutta and received a law degree from theCalcutta University.[10] She worked at thelegal firm Fox and Mandal and practised as a full-time lawyer in theSupreme Court of India for two years before entering politics.[11] She married her long-time boyfriend Mirza Kayesh Begg ofAsansol on 5 December 2009. She met him in 2004 while studying law at Calcutta University.[12][13]
On 10 July 2008, the Sujapur constituency fell vacant due to the death of Noor's mother, sittingMember of Legislative Assembly Rubi Noor. Subsequently, theIndian National Congress party announced that Mausam would contest for the upcomingby-election from the constituency.[4] She won the election and defeated her nearest rival, Haji Ketabuddin of theCommunist Party of India (Marxist) by a margin of 21,205 votes.[14]
On 20 May 2009, Noor waselected to theLok Sabha, representing theMaldaha Uttar constituency. She became one of the five youngest members and the youngest Muslim woman to be elected to the15th Lok Sabha.[15][16] On 31 August, she became a member of theStanding Committee on Labour. On 23 September, she became a member of the Standing Committee on Empowerement of Women and a member of Consultative Committee ofMinistry of Youth Affairs and Sports.[17]
In March 2011, Noor was elected president of the West Bengal Youth Congress. She was supported by theIndian Youth Congress general-secretaryRahul Gandhi and defeated Arindam Bhattacharya.[18][19] In December 2013, she succeeded her uncle Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury as the party president for the Malda district.[20]
During Noor's first term as an MP, 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) of road was built in her constituency under thePradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. Also, under theRajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (Rajiv Gandhi Village Electrification Scheme),₹1.33 billion was sanctioned for her constituency. Moreover,₹850 million was sanctioned for theNational Highway 81 (running fromGazole toHarishchandrapur),₹290 million for Ratua-Nakatti Bridge,₹330 million underBackward Regions Grant Fund to review erosion caused by theMahananda River and₹320 million for a Samsi railway overbridge. However, she alleged that these projects could not be implemented as thestate government refused to co-operate.[21]
In March 2014, the Congress party announced that Noor would participate from her own constituency for the upcominggeneral election.[21] She was re-elected after defeatingKhagen Murmu of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) by a margin of 65,705 votes.[22] She was polled 388,000 votes.[23] From 1 September 2014 to 31 August 2015, she served as a member of Committee on Papers Laid on the Table and Standing Committee on Rural Development.[24][25] On 1 September 2014, she also became a member of Consultative Committee,Ministry of Minority Affairs.[17]
Although Malda has been a bastion of the Congress party, they lost a large number ofZilla Parishad elections andPanchayat samiti elections to the rulingTrinamool Congress withBharatiya Janata Party making inroads in the region. To make amends, Noor started organizing rallies and visiting villages.[26]
Noor left the Congress party and joined the Trinamool Congress on 28 January 2019 after her proposal to form an electoral alliance with the rulingTrinamool Congress was turned down by the Pradesh Congress Committee.[27][28]
Subsequently, Noor was elevated to the post of the General-Secretary of the party. The party also announced that she would contest from her own constituency (Maldaha Uttar) in the upcoming 2019 general election.[29] She also became the party in-charge for theUttar Dinajpur,Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda districts.[30] On 30 January, she organized a rally at Malda in which had fourteenpanchayat members and one councillor ofEnglish Bazaar switch to Trinamool.[31][32]
In the election, Noor lost toKhagen Murmu ofBharatiya Janata Party, her nearest rival by a margin of 84,288 votes. She was polled 425,236 votes.[33] Subsequently, the party made her the party president of theMalda district unit on 26 May.[34]
In theRajya Sabha election 2020, Noor was nominated forRajya Sabha election fromWest Bengal by the Chief Minister of West BengalMamata Banerjee.[35][36]
Noor favoured an electoral alliance between theWest Bengal Pradesh Congress and the Trinamool Congress to fight against Bharatiya Janata Party. However, the Pradesh Congress chiefSomen Mitra rejected the proposal as they were keen to form an alliance with the Communist Party.[37][38] In August 2018, she wrote letters to both the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Trinamool Congress, requesting them to support her party'spanchayat members to formpanchayat governments in villages where Congress party had a simple majority. In return, she promised that her party would also support these two parties to formpanchayat government in villages where they had a simple majority. She said that she wanted to prevent Bharatiya Janata Party, to formpanchayat governments in villages.[39]
| External videos | |
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 Mausam Noor | |
| Mausam Noor at Ranaghat |
