Sushmita Dev joins Trinamool Congress, day after leaving Congress

Former Lok Sabha MP Sushmita Dev on Monday joined the Trinamool Congress in Kolkata, a day after resigning from the Congress party in which she headed the women's wing.

"We warmly welcome the former president of All India Mahila Congress @sushmitadevinc to our Trinamool family," the party's official handle tweeted, releasing pictures of Dev with national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and Rajya Sabha parliamentary party leader Derek O'Brien.

What role she would play in her new party was not immediately clear, but initial reports suggested she was interested in taking up responsibilities in Assam.


Dev joined the TMC after meeting Abhishek Banerjee and party supremo Mamata Banerjee. She is scheduled to address a press conference on Tuesday in New Delhi along with O'Brien.

A former Lok Sabha MP from Silchar in Assam, Dev was a national spokesperson of the Congress and chief of the All-India Mahila Congress when she abruptly informed the party leadership of her decision to leave.

Her letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi did not give any reasons for her resignation, saying instead that she was beginning a "new chapter" in her "life of public service".

Dev, who had met the Congress president along with other leaders of the Assam Congress only a day earlier, gave the first indication of her exit when she changed her Twitter bio to "former member" of the Congress and "former chief" of the Mahila Congress.