Sushmita Dev quits TMC, exits Rajya Sabha in another jolt to Mamata

TRinamool us congress Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev on midweek resigned from the Upper put up, 2 years after her fellow lawmaker Sukhendu Sekhar Roy quit, further damaging the party’s strength in Parliament, where the TMC also faces a rebellion among its Lok Sabha lawmakers.“I do hereby resign from the membership of Rajya Sabha, which may please be accepted with immediate effect,” said her resignation letter.Dev’s resignation was accepted by Rajya Sabha chairman, CP Radhakrishnan.“Sushmita Dev, an elected member of the Council of States (Rajya Sabha), representing the state of West Bengal, resigned her seat in the Rajya Sabha and her resignation has been accepted by the Chairman, Rajya Sabha, with effect from June 10, 2026,” a notification from the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said.Dev – who also met Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma – said that it was her personal decision and she felt free after leaving the TMC.“I feel I am a free woman now. This is my personal decision and I have the right, as in a free country, in a democracy, to decide which party I will go to, what kind of politics I will do, or whether I will do politics at all,” she said.Roy and Dev’s resignation will pave the way for by-elections in the Upper House. The BJP, which has 208 seats in the Bengal assembly, is set to win both seats. According to the laws, each by election will be held independently.The twin resignations deepen the crisis in the TMC, which played a key role in defeating the Constitution amendment bill to implement the women’s quota and delimitation of seats.Dev, the daughter of former Assam Congress stalwart Santosh Mohan Dev, joined the TMC from the Congress in 2021 amid the Bengal-based party’s plan to expand in national politics. She has been a Rajya Sabha member for two terms. Dev, who began her second term in 2024, had four more years in the Upper House.Unlike Roy, who lambasted the TMC in his resignation letter, Dev wrote a plain resignation letter to Radhakrishnan.“I don’t need validation from anyone and I will not speak against anyone in the TMC. I’m not privy to who is doing what and, frankly speaking, I am not directly involved in Bengal politics. I am from Assam,” Dev added.She said she will not speak against Mamata Banerjee.“Let me tell you clearly, I won’t make any comment on her. But it is true that I have left the TMC and I will let the media know about my future steps soon,” she said, adding that not everything needs to be revealed.According to a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, Dev approached Sarma. The two leaders have known each other for many years and share a cordial relationship. Dev, according to a person privy to details, first came to see Sarma asking for advice. She said that she didn’t want to go back to the Congress and was also wary of reports about a possible merger between the Congress and TMC, the person added.