In a fresh blow to the Trinamool Congress, the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev resigned from the Upper House with immediate effect on Wednesday, triggering speculation of a possible switch to the BJP.
In the resignation letter written to Rajya Sabha chairman Shri C.P. Radhakrishnan, Dev wrote, “I do hereby resign from the membership of Rajya Sabha, which may please be accepted with immediate effect. I convey my sincere gratitude to your Excellency, Hon’ble Deputy Chairman and all functionaries of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat extending all help and cooperation during my tenure as a Member of the Rajya Sabha.”
Notably, after tendering her resignation, Sushmita Dev met Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Delhi, raising speculation that she might join the BJP. Like Sarma, Sushmita Dev is also a former Assam Congress leader. She is the daughter of former Congress heavyweight Santosh Mohan Dev.
#WATCH | TMC leader Sushmita Dev meets Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma in Delhi. She has resigned as Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament. pic.twitter.com/SP8hKBH8sd
— ANI (@ANI) June 10, 2026
The development comes just two days after senior TMC leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy quit both the Rajya Sabha and the party, highlighting deepening internal revolt and discontent within the Mamata Banerjee-led outfit following its crushing defeat in the West Bengal Assembly elections.
Sushmita Dev, a lawyer-turned-politician with roots in Assam’s Silchar, served as a Lok Sabha MP for the Congress before quitting the party in 2021 and joining the TMC. She was nominated to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal in 2024 and had been serving as the party’s national spokesperson.
Her exit marks the latest in a wave of high-profile TMC resignations and rebellions that have accelerated since the party’s landslide loss in the 2026 West Bengal polls. The BJP secured a massive 207 seats out of 294, installing Suvendu Adhikari as Chief Minister and reducing the TMC to a distant second.
On June 8, veteran TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, the party’s longest-serving member in the Upper House, resigned, citing “rampant corruption, violence against women, and extreme anarchy” in governance under the TMC.
60 out of 80 TMC MLAs in West Bengal have openly revolted against the party and have rejected the party’s choice of Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of the Opposition. The Rebel faction is backing expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee for the post.
