The political homecoming of Mausam Noor, the Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member who returned to the Congress on Saturday, has evoked mixed reactions, with some in the Congress calling her “opportunistic”.

Leaders of the Trinamool Congress and the BJP said Noor’s return to the Congress would have little or no impact on Malda’s electoral politics.

Niece of the late A.B.A. Ghani Khan Choudhury, the Congress stalwart dubbed as the architect of modern Malda, Noor was the district Congress president before joining Trinamool in 2019. She was elected a Congress MLA from the Sujapur seat in the bypoll in 2008. She became the Congress MP from Malda North twice, in 2009 and 2014.

Noor lost from the same seat in 2019 as a Trinamool candidate but was made the Rajya Sabha MP by the party in 2020.

Abdul Hannan, the leader of the Opposition in the Malda zilla parishad and a district Congress leader, expressed displeasure over Noor’s re-induction.

“She is an opportunist. She left the Congress when the party was in trouble. Now, when Congress workers have strengthened the party’s position, she has returned to reap political benefits. Both her exit and return were driven entirely by personal political gain,” Hannan said.

Others welcomed her return. “There is no denying that the name of late A.B.A. Ghani Khan Choudhury still makes the people of Malda emotional. His successors achieved electoral success largely because of the family’s political legacy, integrity and secular values,” said Bhupendranath Haldar, a senior district Congress leader. He that Noor’s defection to Trinamool had created a void in the Congress, leaving voters confused. “Her return has now rejuvenated our confidence to politically reclaim our traditional bastion,” Haldar said.

Trinamool dismissed Noor’s latest defection as politically insignificant. “Who is she? She lost the general election. It was Mamata Banerjee who made her a Rajya Sabha MP and appointed her district Trinamool president. She has no political influence and is a paper tiger,” said Krishnendu Narayan Choudhury, a state vice-president of the Trinamool.

The Malda BJP organisational district president Ajay Ganguly said Malda’s people had supported the Congress many times in the past. “But merely invoking Ghani Khan’s name will not work anymore. People are least bothered about the whereabouts of dynasts,” Ganguly alleged.