Sushmita Dev Quits Trinamool, Meets Himanta Biswa Sarma For "Guidance"

Another Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP, Sushmita Dev, resigned from all party posts, making her the second Rajya Sabha MP from the party to do so this week.

And this is only the third day of the week.

"I do hereby resign from the membership of Rajya Sabha, which may please be accepted with immediate effect," the outgoing leader said in a letter addressed to Rajya Sabha chairman CP Radhakrishnan, who has accepted her resignation.

Shortly after her resignation, a picture of a smiling Sushmita Dev with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Sarma at his Delhi residence appeared online.

"There's only Assam connection," Dev is heard saying on the video when a reporter asks her if there's an Assam connection.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, she underlined that the decision to quit was her own. 

"What prompted me to take this decision is a very long story and in politics not everything needs to be revealed. I don't want to be in a stuation where I am in two boats. I have never stayed in a party and served another. The decision is my own," she said.

"I am a free woman. Let me be on a few days' sabbatical. I come from the region of Barak valley in Assam. I would like to serve the people of Assam," she said, dropping hints about her future plan.  

Asked about her meeting with Himanta Sarma, she said, "I wanted his guidance. I think that he is the right person to guide me." 

Questioned about the tumult in Trinamool, the politician said she is not in on it and refused to say anything about "Mamata Didi". 

"Why are some people moving away from Trinamool I am not privy to these reasons. I am not directly involved in Bengal politics," she said, urging reporters to speak to Trinamool MPs, MLAs. 

"Which party I will be in and what my politics will be - that is my decision. Politics will continue. I am a politician with an electoral background and I am an organisational person. Assam is my state," she said further.

The 53-year-old leader, who crossed over from the Congress, joined the Trinamool in 2021, and spoke about starting a "new chapter of public service". 

The daughter of Assam Congress stalwart and influential Bengali leader Santosh Mohan Dev, she was chief of the Congress's women's wing, the All India Mahila Congress.

She had earlier been an MP from Silchar in Assam, the stronghold of her father.

On Monday, veteran Trinamool leader and Rajya Sabha member Sukhendu Sekhar Ray announced his resignation from both parliament and the party.

In a press statement, Ray also launched a scathing attack against the Trinamool and its 15-year-government in Bengal.

"Already, the newly elected state government of West Bengal has started working to fulfil the promises made in its election manifesto and has started multiple programmes for the overall development and progress of West Bengal. I accept this overwhelming verdict from the people of West Bengal in the recently concluded West Bengal assembly elections and resign from both the Rajya Sabha as well as from primary membership of the Trinamool Congress," Ray said in his statement.

The resignations come barely days after an unprecedented rebellion in the party's legislature wing in Bengal, where 58 Trinamool MLAs broke ranks with the leadership and backed Ritabrata Banerjee for the post of Leader of the Opposition, rejecting the party's official nominee Shovandeb Chattopadhyay.

The revolt, which culminated in Ritabrata's recognition as LoP by the Assembly Speaker, exposed deep fissures within the organisation following the party's defeat in the assembly polls, and fuelled concerns that the unrest could spread beyond the House.