Meraj Khalid Noor, who is fondly called as Bihar’s own Osama Bin Laden, because of his strange resemblance to the late Al-Qaida leader announced that he would be contesting the Lok Sabha election from Varanasi against BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Noor, who is the chief of newly formed political party called ‘Ram India’, said that after much deliberation he has decided to contest polls against PM nominee Narendra Modi from Varanasi.
Few years ago, Patna based Noor was considered a close associate of Former Chief Minister of Bihar and Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad Yadav and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan. Both the leaders used Meraj Khalid Noor to woo the Muslim voters in the region. However, now the story was different.
The businessman-turned-politician said that he had campaigned for Paswan in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls and for Lalu Prasad Yadav in the 2005 assembly elections.
However, now Noor accuses Lalu Prasad Yadav and Paswan for using him to attract Muslim votes for their respective parties.
Noor is tall, has well-built body and sports a long black beard and similar to the late Al-Qaida Chief, he is always seen in white robes and matching turban. The Al-Qaida leader was killed by US Commandos in a covert operation in May 2011.
The Ram India chief admitted on capitalizing his resemblance to the world’s then most wanted man. He, however said that he is neither a good speaker nor does he have a strong support base.
Everyone known to him addresses him as ‘Bin Laden’. People in Patna and elsewhere in Bihar, don’t even know his real name.
One of his friends, Salam Iraqi revealed that Noor entered politics in 2004 when he asked LJP leader Paswan to give him a ticket to contest the assembly elections. His plea was not entertained by the LJP chief. However, he was asked by Paswan to campaign for his party where Noor was introduced as “Osama Bin Laden”.
In 2005, Noor then shifted his loyalty to the RJD and campaigned for Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Apparently, he was so popular that Paswan and Lalu would make sure that a seat was left vacant for him on their campaign helicopters, even if they had to drop a senior party leader for him.
Noor, however, does not consider himself a hardliner.
Noor is the grandson of Kazi Muzahidul Islam who has served as the President of the Muslim Personal Law Board in the past. His father, Noor Ahmad, was considered a very close aide of veteran socialist leader George Fernandes.
Noor’s popularity was such that once even Narendra Modi had mentioned about him.
In 2005, later BJP leader Pramod Mahajan had accused Lalu Prasad Yadav and Paswan of glorifying the most wanted terrorist in the world by asking Noor to campaign for them.
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