Trinamool Congress nominates ex-Cong leader Sushmita Dev for Rajya Sabha bypoll
The Trinamool Congress has entrusted Sushmita Dev with the charge of looking after the party's functioning in Assam and Tripura.
The Trinamool Congress on Tuesday named Sushmita Dev, who recently joined the Mamata Banerjee-led party after quitting the Congress, for bypoll to the Rajya Sabha seat.
Taking to Twitter to announce Sushmita Dev's nomination, the Trinamool Congress said “Mamata Banerjee's vision to empower women and ensure their maximum participation in politics shall help our society to achieve much more.”
The bypoll, which would be held on October 4, was necessiated after Trinamool Congress leader Manas Bhunia vacated the Rajya Sabha seat after winning the assembly polls from Sabang in West Midnapore district. The Trinamool Congress controls 12 of 16 Rajya Sabha seats, while Congress has two and CPI(M) one.
The Trinamool Congress has entrusted Sushmita Dev with the charge of looking after the party''s functioning in Assam and Tripura.
Reacting to the news of her nomination for the bypoll to Rajya Sabha, Sushmita Dev thanked West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee as she took to Twitter to say the party supremo's "conviction to see more women in parliament is exemplary.”
She called her nomination a “strong message to the northeast.”
“By giving someone from northeast an RS seat where West Bengal MLAs will be voting, means she (Mamata) has serious plans for northeast. I am a Bengali from Assam... I assure that I will not let her down,” Dev told news agency ANI.
A former national spokesperson for the Congress and the chief of the party's women wing, Sushmita Dev joined the Trinamool Congress in the presence of senior party leaders Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O'Brien in Kolkata in August.
The former MP from Assam's Silchar was associated with the Congress for over three decades. She sumbitted her resignation to Congress president Sonia Gandhi a day before joining the Trinamool Congress.
Even though Sushmita Dev did not offer any reason for her leaving the Congress, political experts saw the process of her exit during the Assam assembly elections this year when Dev and then APCC president Ripun Bora disagreed on seat distribution for Barak Valley region of the state.
She pointed out that APCC did not give her proper respect during the state assembly elections.
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