TMC MP Mausam Noor's return to Cong shows Mamata losing Muslim vote: BJP

New Delhi, Jan 3 (PTI) The BJP on Saturday said TMC Rajya Sabha MP Mausam Noor's return to the Congress ahead of the West Bengal assembly polls reflects that Muslim voters are "deserting" Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, leaving her party in "dire straits".

Noor returned to the Congress on Saturday after a gap of seven years, saying she wants to carry forward the legacy of her uncle and former party stalwart Ghani Khan Chaudhary. She is likely to contest the assembly polls in West Bengal from Maldah. Her tenure as Rajya Sabha MP ends in April.

Commenting on the development, BJP co-incharge for West Bengal Amit Malviya said, "The situation for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is truly dire when its Rajya Sabha members are giving up their terms and rushing to join the Congress, a party that has virtually no presence in Bengal beyond a few Muslim-dominated Assembly constituencies in Malda and Murshidabad." "This only confirms one thing: Muslim voters, whom Mamata Banerjee fancied as her captive vote bank, are deserting her," Malviya said in a post on X.

He further said that Noor's exit from the TMC serves Banerjee "right" "In her (Mamata Banerjee) desperation to appease one section, she reduced Hindus to second-grade citizens. Now she is left with neither. Hindus are fed up with her misrule, and Muslims are abandoning her in favour of leaders of the Quom (people)," Malviya charged.

"Politics of division has a shelf life. Mamata Banerjee is discovering that the hard way," he added. PTI PK PK NSD NSD