KOLKATA: Former All India Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev, a close aide of former party chief Rahul Gandhi, joined the Trinamool Congress on Monday, hours after quitting the grand old party.
Dev, a former MP from Assam and the daughter of renowned Congress leader Santosh Mohan Dev, was unhappy with the party’s alliance and seat-sharing deal with ally Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front (AIDUF) in the recently-held Assam Assembly elections and not being consulted for key decisions in her home state.
On Monday, she joined the TMC in Kolkata in presence of Abhishek Banerjee. Sources said that she could be the party’s face when the TMC is looking to make inroads in Tripura and Dev’s father was an MP from Tripura. In a letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Sunday, Dev thanked her for the guidance she received from Sonia during her three-decade- long association with the party. She is the latest in a growing list of Rahul’s close aides who have left the party for greener pastures.
Recently, Jitin Prasada, former union minister and party incharge of West Bengal, joined the BJP. The party drew a blank both in West Bengal and Assam in the recent Assembly elections. A senior Congress leader said she was in talks for a bigger role in Tripura and Assam. She had met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul on Saturday afternoon with a delegation from Assam and none knew that she would quit the very next day.
No longer in the grand old party
2021 Sushmita Dev, Mahila Congress chief; joined the AITC
2021 Jitin Prasada, in-charge for West Bengal; joined the BJP
2021 Abhijit Mukherjee, former MP & son of Pranab Mukherjee; joined the AITC
2020 Jyotiraditya Scindia, AICC in-charge for west Uttar Pradesh; joined the BJP
2020 PC Chacko, AICC incharge for Delhi; joined the NCP
2020 Khushbu Sundar, national spokesperson; joined the BJP
2019 Pradyot Manikya, in-charge forTripura; floated own outfit
2019 Ashok Tanwar, Haryana Congress chief; floated his own political party
2019 Ajoy Kumar, Jhrakhand Congress chief; joined AAP, but returned to Congress in 2020
2019 Priyanka Chaturvedi, Ntnl spokesperson; joined Shiv Sena