Former Congress leader Sushmita Dev joins TMC hours after quitting party

Shortly after quitting the Congress, former Assam MP Sushmita Dev on Monday joined the Trinamool Congress in Kolkata. She joined the TMC in the presence of TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

Dev, who had been serving as the All-India Mahila Congress chief, sent her resignation to party chief Sonia Gandhi late on Sunday. She met Abhishek at his office in south Kolkata on Monday morning, fuelling speculation about her next political move.

Kolkata, West Bengal: Sushmita Dev, who resigned from Congress today, joins TMC in the presence of party leaders Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O'Brien.

Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Bhupen Bora told reporters in Guwahati that the former MP, who was also a national spokesperson of the grand old party, had to quit as "she is suffering from depression". Bora also asserted that Dev was given "adequate importance" by the party high command, and any "political reason" couldn't have prompted her exit.

"This (resignation) is a sign of her depression. One cannot comprehend how much a defeat can affect a person, if he or she hasn't seen Sushmita. Perhaps, she is lacking the self-confidence to re-build the party's support base in Silchar once again," he claimed.

Dev lost her Silchar Lok Sabha constituency to BJP's Rajdeep Roy in 2019 general election.

Asked whether her departure will hurt the Congress, the Assam unit chief said, "When a family member leaves, it is never nice... We have to work on finding more leaders like her."

In her letter to Gandhi, Dev said she was beginning a "new chapter in my life of public service". "I cherish my three-decade long association with the Indian National Congress...I hope I have your good wishes as I begin a new chapter in my life of public service," she said in the letter.