Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 16

In the first big switch within the opposition camp, Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev on Monday quit the Congress for the TMC joining the Mamata Banerjee-led outfit in Kolkata.

She sent her resignation to Congress president Sonia Gandhi seeking her wishes to begin a “new chapter in public service”. The Congress denied receiving the letter.

Dev (48) was Congress Lok Sabha MP from Assam’s Silchar in the 16th Lok Sabha. She lost the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Silchar and was named Mahila Congress chief.

Sibal aims at Cong leadership: ‘Eyes wide shut’

While young leaders leave, we ‘oldies’ are blamed for our efforts to strengthen it. The Congress party moves on with: Eyes Wide Shut. — Kapil Sibal, Congress leader

The exit, yet in line with the recent ones of Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada and previously Himanta Biswa Sarma, had some Congress leaders attack the top party brass for failing to act.

Latent anxieties in the grand old party surfaced again today with former minister Kapil Sibal taunting the party saying it had eyes wide shut.

“Sushmita 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,” Sibal tweeted, in his most caustic remarks on the Congress in recent times.

Sibal, who hosted non-BJP leaders last week, has been in the eye of a storm for “acting out of line”.

Though not new for the Congress, Sushmita’s exit has the party worried as it marks the first major switch within the opposition camp from Congress to TMC instead of Congress to the BJP. The move undermines Congress’ position within the non-BJP camp at a time when the TMC remains its principal challenger in the leadership race ahead of the 2024 General Election.

“This exit is not routine. It opens doors for disgruntled Congress leaders who want to fight the BJP but believe that the Congress is not the right forum to do that. The fact that Sushmita saw TMC as a greater force than the Congress is a problem,” said a Congress functionary.

Sushmita said she met TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in Kolkata today and was “impressed by the vision and clarity he had about the party’s future”. She also met the West Bengal CM.