New Delhi: Congress women’s wing national president and former MP from Assam Sushmita Dev resigned from primary membership of the party on Monday (August 16).
The resignation of the one-time MP from the Silchar constituency of Assam, who was seen close to the Gandhi family, has led senior party leader Kabil Sibal to bring to the forefront – once again – the issue of the Congress top leadership seen wanting in strengthening the party.
In a tweet, Sibal, who is a signatory to a letter written to party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi last August about the leadership crisis along with 22 others, said, “Sushmita Dev resigns from primary membership of our party. While young leaders leave, we ‘oldies’ are blamed for our efforts t strengthen it. The party moves on with Eyes Wide Shut.”
Sushmita Dev
Resigns from primary membership of our Party
While young leaders leave we ‘oldies’ are blamed for our efforts to strengthen it
The Party moves on with :
Eyes Wide Shut
— Kapil Sibal (@KapilSibal) August 16, 2021
Sibal’s statement comes a week after he hosted a dinner meeting of opposition leaders where the invitees spoke of the need for opposition unity to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Later, reacting to the news about a virtual meeting of opposition leaders with the same purpose called by Sonia Gandhi for August 20, Sibal welcomed it, adding, “But our (Congress’s) reform agenda had to continue and we will keep pushing for it to strengthen the Congress.”
The resignation of Sushmita Dev, daughter of veteran Congress leader from the Northeast Santosh Mohan Dev, is the second blow to the party in terms of young leaders from the Northeast calling it quits. In 2019, Pradyot Manikya Barman, then the president of the Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee, had resigned from the party after colluding with the Central leadership. He too was seen close to the Gandhi family, particularly to Rahul Gandhi.
In her letter to the interim president on August 15, Dev didn’t give any specific reason for her move. Stating it to be “a new chapter” in her life of public service, she thanked Gandhi for the opportunities she got at the party.
Soon after, Dev changed her Twitter bio to former president of the All India Mahila Congress.
Prior to the Assam assembly polls held early this year, media reports had stated that Dev had threatened to leave the party as she was unhappy with the seat-sharing arrangement between the Congress and All India United Democratic Front in the Barak valley region for the elections. A few other state leaders too had express unhappiness.
Though Dev is silent about her next move, some reports have said that she is likely to join the Trinamool Congress (TMC). Aside from seeking a national role, the regional party, after defeating the BJP in the West Bengal polls, is also going about aggressively in the Bengali-dominated regions of the Northeast which are under the BJP – the Barak Valley of Assam and Tripura in particular.
In the 2019 general elections, Dev had lost the Silchar seat to Rajdeep Roy of the BJP. Her father, Santosh Mohan Dev, had won from the Silchar seat several times. In the 2014 parliamentary polls. she had contested successfully from the seat.
Barely two weeks before Dev had sent her resignation letter to Gandhi, Sushanta Borgohain, a senior leader of the Assam unit of the Congress and an MLA from the Thowra seat, too had resigned from primary membership of the grand old party and from the state legislature. Borgohain is set to join the ruling BJP.
A two-time MLA from the Congress, Borgohain would be the second party legislator after Rupjyoti Kurmi to have walked out of the Congress and resign from the Assam assembly soon after the state polls in order to join the BJP.