bastion of the Congress party, they lost a large number of Zilla Parishad elections and Panchayat samiti elections to the ruling Trinamool Congress with Bharatiya Janata Party making inroads in the region. To make amends, Noor started organizing rallies and visiting villages. Trinamool Congress Noor left the Congress party and joined the Trinamool Congress on 28 January 2019 after her proposal to form an electoral alliance with the ruling Trinamool Congress was turned down by the Pradesh Congress Committee. 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. She also became the party in-charge for the Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda districts. On 30 January, she organized a rally at Malda in which had fourteen panchayat members and one councillor of English Bazaar switch to Trinamool. In the election, Noor lost to Khagen Murmu of Bharatiya Janata Party, her nearest rival by a margin of 84,288 votes. She was polled 425,236 votes. Subsequently, the party made her the party president of the Malda district unit on 26 May. In the Rajya Sabha election 2020, Noor was nominated for Rajya Sabha election from West Bengal by the Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee. Views Noor favoured an electoral alliance between the West Bengal Pradesh Congress and the Trinamool Congress to fight against Bharatiya Janata Party. However, the Pradesh Congress chief Somen Mitra rejected the proposal as they were keen to form an alliance with the Communist Party. In August 2018, she wrote letters to both the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Trinamool Congress, requesting them to support her party's panchayat members to form panchayat governments in villages where Congress party had a simple majority. In return, she promised that her party would also support these two parties to form panchayat government in villages where they had a simple majority. She said that she wanted to prevent Bharatiya Janata Party, to form panchayat governments in villages. References External links 1979 births Living people People from Malda district India MPs 2009–2014 Indian National Congress politicians Indian National Congress politicians from West Bengal Trinamool Congress politicians from West Bengal 21st-century Indian Muslims Women in West Bengal politics University of Calcutta alumni Lok Sabha members from West Bengal People from English Bazar India MPs 2014–2019 21st-century Indian women