Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Sushmita Dev has resigned from both the Upper House of Parliament and the primary membership of the party. This marks the second exit from the TMC this week. Following her resignation, Dev met Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Delhi, sparking speculation about a potential shift to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
She is the second Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member to step down within a week. On June 8, veteran party leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy also resigned as a Rajya Sabha member and from the primary membership of Trinamool Congress. Roy cited his decision as a response to the people of West Bengal’s verdict in the recently concluded state assembly elections, which he interpreted as a mass rejection of the Trinamool Congress due to various issues.
Sushmita Dev, whose political background is rooted in Assam and the Congress, is the daughter of former Union minister Santosh Mohan Dev. Her father served as a Union minister under three Congress Prime Ministers. Sushmita Dev herself previously held the position of a Congress Lok Sabha member from the Silchar constituency in Assam. After being defeated by the BJP’s Rajdeep Roy in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, she joined the Trinamool Congress in August 2021.
Having been entrusted by former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with the task of expanding the Trinamool Congress network in northeastern states, including her home state of Assam, Sushmita Dev served two terms in the party. Her first term was an interim one from October 2021 to August 2023, while her second term in the Upper House of Parliament began in April 2024. However, she chose to resign before completing her full six-year term.
