In 1996, Polat co-founded the
Green Youth in her hometown Brasche and joined the party
Alliance 90/The Greens. She was active as a member in the city council of Bramsche between 1996 and 2001. From 2005 to 2007, she served as the deputy chairperson of the regional organization in
Lower Saxony. She was re-elected in the
2008 election in Lower Saxony. Polat became the deputy chairperson of her party's parliamentary group in February 2013. From 2006 Polat also served on the city council of Bramsche again. In 2020, Polat co-founded a cross-party working group on diversity and antiracism. Ahead of the
2021 elections, Polat was elected to lead the Green Party's campaign in Lower Saxony, alongside
Sven-Christian Kindler. In the negotiations to form a so-called
traffic light coalition of the
Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Green Party and the
Free Democratic Party (FDP) following the elections, she was part of her party's delegation in the working group on migration and integration, co-chaired by
Boris Pistorius,
Luise Amtsberg and
Joachim Stamp. ==Other activities==