In a politically significant development ahead of the 2026 Assembly election, Rajya Sabha MP Mausam Benazir Noor on Saturday formally returned to the Congress, seven years after she quit the party to join the Trinamul Congress (TMC) in January 2019.
She completed the rejoining formalities at the Congress headquarters on Akbar Road in New Delhi, marking a reunion of the influential Gani Khan Choudhury family under the Congress banner in Malda. Senior Congress leaders, including party general secretary Jairam Ramesh, West Bengal Congress observer Ghulam Ahmad Mir, Pradesh Congress president Subhankar Sarkar and Malda North MP Isha Khan Choudhury ~ who is also Mausam’s elder brother ~ were present during the joining programme.
Addressing the media after Mausam’s return, Isha Khan Choudhury said the homecoming had healed long-standing divisions within the family. “Congress runs in her blood. When she left the party, it created a rift within our family. Today, all that has ended,” he said. Mausam, the niece of late Congress stalwart ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury, thanked the party leadership for accepting her back. “We are a Congress family. I spent a few years in the Trinamul Congress, where I was given opportunities to work. I have already sent my resignation to Mamata-di and will resign from the Rajya Sabha on Monday. We have decided as a family to work together. Whatever responsibility the party gives me, I will carry it out. Secularism, development and peace ~ these are the core principles of the Congress,” she said.
Interestingly, Mausam’s return comes just days after the TMC appointed her coordinator for four Assembly segments in Malda. Mausam was first elected to the Lok Sabha from Malda North in 2009 on a Congress ticket and retained the seat in 2014. However, her decision to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on a TMC ticket proved costly, as Malda North slipped out of her hands in a triangular contest, with BJP candidate Khagen Murmu emerging victorious. Subsequently, the TMC nominated her to the Rajya Sabha. She was not fielded in the 2024 elections, nor was she given a ticket in the 2021 Assembly polls, despite speculation. Political observers note that the Gani Khan Choudhury legacy remains central to Malda’s politics, and Mausam’s political identity has largely been tied to the family name. With Isha Khan Choudhury currently serving as a Congress MP from Malda South, her return is seen as a strategic move to consolidate the family’s influence within the party.
Notably, Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of Opposition, had played a key role in facilitating Mausam’s entry into the TMC in 2019, when he was the party’s observer for Malda and Murshidabad and had introduced her to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. While the Congress hopes Mausam’s return will revive the party’s fortunes in Malda, opinions within the party remain divided over the actual electoral impact. The TMC, meanwhile, has downplayed her exit. BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya dismissed the development, remarking that only Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury commands respect in the Congress, and that such switches make little difference to the BJP’s politics in the state.