TMC’s Sushmita Dev resigns as Rajya Sabha MP, quits party

Trinamool Congress leader Sushmita Dev on Wednesday resigned as Rajya Sabha MP and quit the party, citing personal and political reasons.

Dev did not give more details, but told PTI that everyone has the right to change their mind.

“What prompted me to take this decision is a very long story,” she told reporters. “And in politics, I don’t think that everything needs to be revealed. But I feel that I don’t want to be in a situation where I am in two boats.”

The resignation came after Dev met Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Delhi. She told reporters that it was a “courtesy visit”.

Dev was a Rajya Sabha MP between 2021 and 2023, and became a member of the Upper House again in April 2024.

She had joined the TMC in 2021 after quitting the Congress. Before that, she was an MLA in Assam between 2011 and 2014, and a Lok Sabha MP from the state’s Silchar constituency between 2014 and 2019.

This came two days after another Rajya Sabha MP of the TMC, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, resigned from the House and quit the party. Ray had cited the result of the recent West Bengal Assembly elections in which the TMC lost to the BJP.

Since losing the state polls, the TMC is facing internal divisions with expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee claiming that a group of 58 of the 80 legislators had been recognised as the party’s legislature wing in the Assembly.

The stand taken by the 58 MLAs is being viewed as a challenge to TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, who is supporting Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.

On June 3, the TMC dissolved all its committees and organisational units in the state, saying it would undertake a “comprehensive” review of its performance and party structure.

Edited by Sneha.

Also read: Why the Trinamool Congress is collapsing like a house of cards