TMC Member Sushmita Dev Gets Nominated For Rajya Sabha Seat

Sushmita Dev, former Congress leader who joined Trinamool Congress (TMC) earlier this year, has been nominated for a seat in Rajya Sabha, the party informed on Tuesday.

TMC in its statement praised Mamata Banerjee's aim to empower women and wrote, "Her (Mamata Banerjee's) vision to empower women and ensure their maximum participation in politics shall help our society to achieve much more!"

Sushmita Dev had earlier said that her joining TMC comes without conditions. She said that she will take any responsibility given to her by the party president and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Dev was assigned the role of looking after TMC's functioning in Assam and Tripura. She told reporters, "I don't think I have compromised my ideology in joining the TMC… My joining the TMC is unconditional and I will take any responsibility given to me by Mamata Banerjee."

As a Congress party member, Dev was the national spokesperson and the chief of All India Mahila Congress. In her resignation letter that went public, Dev did not mention any particular reason. She wrote, "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 is the daughter for former Union Minister Santosh Mohan Dev who represented Silchar constituency and Tripura West. He passed way in 2017. Dev's mother, Bithika Dev was also a legislator from Silchar.

Some political voices in Assam made claims that Dev had to quit Congress because of ticket distribution during assembly elections. In her statement from March, Sushmita Dev had said,  “I am the king maker in Barak Valley and we have performed much better than the Brahmaputra Valley...but APCC did not give our hard-fought win proper respect...there is a limit, and we cannot continue serving like second class workers in the party,” she said in March. Her departure was also condemned by Congress leader Kapil Sibal who blamed the party.