KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Tuesday named Sushmita Dev, who recently joined the party after quitting the Congress, as its candidate for bypoll to a Rajya Sabha seat. The seat in the state fell vacant after Manas Bhunia quit the upper house having won assembly elections from Sabang in Paschim Medinipur.
Bypoll to six Rajya Sabha seats, including the one in Bengal, will be held on October 4. "We are extremely pleased to nominate @SushmitaDevAITC to the Upper House of the Parliament. @MamataOfficial's vision to empower women and ensure their maximum participation in politics shall help our society to achieve much more!" the party tweeted.
Dev, who was one of the national spokespersons of the grand old party and its women's wing chief, switched over to the Mamata Banerjee-led camp last month. She has been assigned the job of looking after party's functioning in Assam and Tripura.
Dev, a prominent face in Tripura politics where the TMC is trying to get foothold before the Assembly elections scheduled to be held in 2013, was overwhelmed with TMC’s announcement.
"I am extremely grateful to Mamatadi and Abhishek (Banerjee). I don’t know whether I deserve it or not, but I will do my best to take party’s vision forward. It is great to see that she (Mamata) wants more women in Parliament," Sushmita said.
According to political observers, the TMC’s nomination is significant as Sushmita has been campaigning in Assam and Tripura with a goal to expand the party’s influence in the northeast.