Sushmita Dev headed the Congresss womens wing, the All India Mahila Congress. (File)
Former Congress MP Sushmita Dev has quit the party and is set to join the Trinamool Congress of Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today.
The change in her Twitter bio to “Former Member” of the party was the first clue this morning that she had quit. The Assam leader is in Kolkata to meet with Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee. “She will be the face of the Trinamool in Assam if she joins,” said Trinamool Congress sources.
Sushmita Dev wrote on Sunday to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, offering no reason for quitting her party of three decades but talking about a “new chapter of public service”. The daughter of Assam Congress stalwart and influential Bengali leader Santosh Mohan Dev, she was the 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.