Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee's hold over her party continues to weaken. After 61 MLAs threw their weight behind rebel leader Ritabrata Banerjee, the rebellion has now spread to Parliament. Just a week after her trusted aide Sukhendu Sekhar Roy quit the Rajya Sabha, Sushmita Dev resigned from both the Upper House and the party's primary membership, dealing another blow to Mamata's camp.
Dev, who was previously a Congress Lok Sabha MP from Assam's Silchar, left the party after her 2019 defeat and joined the Trinamool Congress in 2021. She quickly rose through the ranks, becoming the party's national spokesperson and later securing a Rajya Sabha berth.
In a surprise move, she met Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Delhi after resigning from the Rajya Sabha, with sources telling India Today that she is likely to join the BJP. Sources further revealed that Sushmita may contest from an Assam Lok Sabha seat where a by-election is due.
In a letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan, she requested that her resignation be accepted with immediate effect.
This is the second resignation within a week, following the party's first major setback when Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, TMC's Rajya Sabha chief whip for 13 years, quit both the Upper House and the party's primary membership after writing a scathing letter to Mamata Banerjee.
In his resignation letter to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Sukhendu said the people of Bengal had "rejected the party's rampant corruption, extreme oppression of women, and its utter failure and the severe anarchy prevailing across sectors, including education, healthcare, industry, employment, and law and order."
Praising BJP, Sukhendu further wrote: "The voters have, for the first time in Bengal’s history, given the Bharatiya Janata Party a massive victory in terms of seats. The newly elected government has already begun working to implement multiple programmes for Bengal’s overall development and reconstruction, in line with its election promises."
