Bihar's 'Osama bin Laden' is now an untouchable

"Nobody remembers my real name. Everyone calls me bin Laden."

According to Salam Iraqi, one of his friends, Noor took the plunge into politics in 2004 when he sought ticket from Paswan's LJP to contest the assembly polls. His plea was turned down.

But Paswan asked Noor to campaign for his party. Paswan would introduce him as "Osama bin Laden" at election rallies.

Noor switched over to the RJD in September 2005 and campaigned for Lalu Prasad.

Noor was so much in demand that Paswan and Lalu Prasad would invariably find a seat for him on their campaign helicopters, even it came at the cost of dropping a senior party leader.

"I shared the dais with Paswan and Lalu Prasad at several meetings and was honoured by both of them," recalls the Patna University commerce graduate who later studied rural management from Delhi University.

For all his looks, Noor is no hardliner.

He is the grandson of Kazi Muzahidul Islam, a former president of the Muslim Personal Law Board. His father, Noor Ahmad, was a close associate of veteran socialist leader George Fernandes.

Such was Noor's image that BJP's Narendra Modi once made a mention about him.

The late BJP leader, Pramod Mahajan, accused Lalu Prasad and Paswan in 2005 of glorifying "the most wanted terrorist in the world" by asking Noor to campaign for them.

Noor, however, remained in high demand. Today, it is a different story. With Osama dead and Narendra Modi in charge of an aggressive BJP campaign, Noor is truly a political untouchable.