Sushmita Dev quits TMC and Rajya Sabha, second exit in a week
Synopsis
Two Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha members have quit in under a week — and the second, Sushmita Dev, walked straight into a meeting with Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma after resigning. With both departures citing the West Bengal election verdict, the TMC is facing a rare and visible parliamentary haemorrhage.
Key Takeaways
Sushmita Dev resigned from the Rajya Sabha and TMC primary membership on 10 June .
She met Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma in Delhi immediately after, fuelling BJP speculation.
Veteran TMC leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy had resigned from the Rajya Sabha and the party on 8 June — the first such exit this week.
Roy cited 15 years of alleged TMC misrule, including corruption and deteriorating law and order, as his reason for quitting.
Dev had joined TMC in August 2021 after losing the Silchar Lok Sabha seat to BJP's Rajdeep Roy in 2019.
Her second Rajya Sabha term, which began in April 2024 , was cut short before completing the full six-year tenure.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha member Sushmita Dev on Wednesday, 10 June resigned from both the Upper House of Parliament and the primary membership of the party, marking the second high-profile exit from the TMC within a single week. Her departure deepens a visible crack in the party's parliamentary ranks.
The BJP Signal
Shortly after submitting her resignation, Dev met Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Delhi, a meeting that immediately triggered speculation about a possible move to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). No formal announcement has been made, but the optics of the meeting were unmistakable given Sarma's own history as a defector-turned-BJP stalwart in the northeast.
The First Exit: Sukhendu Sekhar Roy
Dev's resignation follows that of veteran TMC leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, who quit as Rajya Sabha member and from the party's primary membership on 8 June. Roy cited the recently concluded West Bengal assembly election verdict as his reason, describing it as a mass rejection of the TMC. He alleged the party's 15-year rule had been marked by 'rampant corruption, indiscriminate crime against women, and overall deterioration in education, health, industrial development, employment generation, and law and order,' according to his statement.
Sushmita Dev's Political Journey
Sushmita Dev carries a Congress legacy into her political career — she is the daughter of former Union minister Santosh Mohan Dev, who served under three Congress Prime Ministers: the late Rajiv Gandhi, the late P. V. Narasimha Rao, and the late Dr Manmohan Singh. She herself represented the Silchar constituency in Assam as a Congress Lok Sabha member from 2014 to 2019, before losing to BJP's Rajdeep Roy in the 2019 general elections.
Dev joined the TMC in August 2021, and former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee assigned her the task of expanding the party's footprint across the northeastern states, including her native Assam. She served an interim Rajya Sabha term from October 2021 to August 2023, followed by a second term beginning April 2024 — a six-year term she has now cut short with her resignation.
What This Means for TMC
Two Rajya Sabha resignations in under a week signal mounting internal discontent within the TMC, particularly among leaders with roots outside West Bengal. The exits come at a politically sensitive moment, with the party's standing in the northeast already under pressure. Notably, both departing members cited the West Bengal election outcome as a catalyst, suggesting that the electoral verdict has emboldened those already at odds with the party leadership.
Whether Dev formally joins the BJP will be closely watched, as her Assam connections and Congress legacy could give the BJP a symbolic and organisational foothold in a state it already governs.
Point of View
Which is precisely where the TMC's expansion ambitions were most fragile. Dev's post-resignation meeting with Himanta Biswa Sarma is the kind of optics that parties do not leave to chance; if she joins the BJP, it hands the party a ready-made narrative about TMC's collapse beyond its home state. The deeper question is whether Mamata Banerjee's inner circle has become too insular to retain leaders who were recruited precisely for their non-Bengal value — and whether the West Bengal election result has now given those leaders the cover they needed to leave.
NationPress
5 Aug 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Sushmita Dev resign from the TMC and Rajya Sabha?
Sushmita Dev resigned from both the Rajya Sabha and the Trinamool Congress primary membership on 10 June, though she has not publicly detailed her personal reasons. Her resignation follows a pattern set two days earlier by fellow TMC Rajya Sabha member Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, who cited the West Bengal election verdict and alleged party misrule as his reasons for quitting.
Is Sushmita Dev joining the BJP?
No formal announcement has been made, but Dev met Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Delhi shortly after resigning, triggering widespread speculation about a possible BJP entry. The meeting has not been officially characterised by either side.
Who was the first TMC Rajya Sabha member to resign this week?
Sukhendu Sekhar Roy resigned from the Rajya Sabha and from TMC's primary membership on 8 June, two days before Dev. He attributed his decision to the West Bengal assembly election outcome, calling it a public rejection of the TMC's 15-year rule.
What is Sushmita Dev's political background?
Sushmita Dev is the daughter of former Union minister Santosh Mohan Dev, who served under three Congress Prime Ministers. She was a Congress Lok Sabha member from Silchar, Assam, from 2014 to 2019, lost to BJP's Rajdeep Roy in 2019, and joined the TMC in August 2021. Mamata Banerjee had tasked her with expanding the party in northeastern states.
How long had Sushmita Dev served in the Rajya Sabha?
Dev served two TMC Rajya Sabha terms — an interim term from October 2021 to August 2023, and a second full term beginning April 2024. She resigned before completing the second term's six-year tenure.
