In a fresh setback for the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC), senior party leader Sushmita Dev resigned from her position as a Rajya Sabha member on Tuesday. In a letter addressed to Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan, Dev requested that her resignation be accepted with immediate effect. Her departure comes shortly after senior Trinamool leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy also relinquished his membership of the Upper House.
“I have resigned for my personal and political reasons. Everyone has the right to change their way of thinking in our country. I cannot say anything more right now,” she told reporters on Wednesday.
The resignation has fuelled speculation about Dev’s political future, particularly after she met Assam Chief Minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma.
TMC faces growing internal turmoil
The move comes at a time when the Trinamool Congress is facing internal turmoil following its decisive defeat in the recent West Bengal Assembly elections. Just weeks after losing power in the state, the party has witnessed growing dissent within its ranks.
Earlier, 60 of the party’s 80 MLAs rebelled against Mamata Banerjee’s decision to appoint Sovandeb Chatterjee as the Leader of the Opposition. This was followed by claims from a rebel faction that 20 of the party’s 28 Lok Sabha MPs were inclined to align with the NDA. With the resignations of two Rajya Sabha MPs, the crisis appears to have deepened further.
Although Sushmita Dev represented West Bengal in the Rajya Sabha, she hails from Assam’s Barak Valley region. She joined the Trinamool Congress in 2021 after leaving the Congress a few months following the Assam Assembly elections. Soon after joining TMC, she was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the party.
From Congress stalwart to TMC leader
Before switching sides, Dev was among the Congress party’s most prominent leaders in Assam and was considered close to Rahul Gandhi. Over the years, she served both as an MLA and as a Lok Sabha MP representing the Congress.
She is the daughter of veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister Santosh Mohan Dev and comes from a prominent political family. During her tenure in the Congress, she was widely regarded as the party’s leading face in the Barak Valley region.
Since joining the Trinamool Congress, Dev emerged as the party’s most recognisable leader in Assam. As the party attempted to expand its footprint in the state, particularly in the Bengali-speaking Barak Valley, it largely relied on her leadership and political influence. However, the Trinamool failed to make significant electoral gains in the region.
The party’s lone notable success in the latest Assam Assembly election came through Sherman Ali Ahmed’s victory from the Baghbor constituency in western Assam.
The Trinamool Congress has been grappling with mounting internal challenges since its electoral setback in West Bengal. The first signs of unrest emerged when 60 of the party’s 80 MLAs, led by Ritabrata Banerjee, opposed the leadership’s choice for the Leader of the Opposition.
The discontent later spread to the national level. Senior leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, claiming that 20 Trinamool MPs wanted to be recognised as a separate bloc and were seeking alignment with the NDA, according to a report by The Indian Express.
In the Rajya Sabha, the first major blow came when senior party leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy resigned from both the party’s primary membership and his position in the Upper House.
Explaining his decision, Roy criticised the prevailing atmosphere within the party. Asked why he had resigned, Ray told The Indian Express, “Because of the situation that was prevailing in the party for a long time.”
Responding to questions about whether he intended to join another political party, he said, “I have spent 59 years in politics. So I have to take a call at the appropriate time after introspection and retrospection.”