Sushmita Dev, the national president of the Congress women's wing and a former Assam MP, resigned from the party's primary membership on Monday (August 16).
The departure of a one-time MP from Assam's Silchar constituency, who was viewed as close to the Gandhi family, has prompted senior party leader Kabil Sibal to bring up the subject of the Congress' top leadership failing to strengthen the party once again.
“Sushmita Dev resigns from main membership of our party,” said Sibal, who was one of 22 people who signed a letter to party interim president Sonia Gandhi last August concerning the leadership problem. “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.”
Sibal's statement comes a week after he held a dinner meeting of opposition leaders at which the guests discussed the importance of cooperation in the fight against 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.”
Sushmita Dev's departure, the daughter of veteran Congressman from the Northeast Santosh Mohan Dev, is the party's second blow in terms of young leaders from the Northeast quitting. After collaborating with the central leadership, Pradyot Manikya Barman, then the president of the Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee, resigned from the party in 2019.
He, too, was viewed as a close friend of the Gandhis, notably Rahul Gandhi.
Dev did not mention any specific reasons for her decision in her letter to the temporary president dated August 15. She thanked Gandhi for the opportunity she received at the party, calling it "a new chapter" in her life of public service.
Dev's Twitter bio was soon changed to past president of the All India Mahila Congress.
Prior to the Assam assembly elections earlier this year, media sources claimed that Dev had threatened to leave the party because she was unhappy with the seat-sharing arrangement for the elections in the Barak valley region between the Congress and the All India United Democratic Front. A few other state leaders too had express unhappiness.
Though Dev has been mum regarding her next move, some rumours claim she would join the Trinamool Congress (TMC). Apart from pursuing a national role, the regional party is aggressively campaigning in Bengali-dominated districts of the Northeast, particularly the Barak Valley of Assam and Tripura, where it defeated the BJP in the West Bengal elections.
Dev lost the Silchar seat to BJP's Rajdeep Roy in the 2019 general elections. Santosh Mohan Dev, her father, had previously won the Silchar seat. She ran successfully for the seat in the 2014 legislative elections.
Sushanta Borgohain, a senior leader of the Assam section of the Congress and an MLA from the Thowra seat, had resigned from primary membership of the grand old party and from the state assembly just two weeks before Dev had delivered her resignation letter to Gandhi. Borgohain is expected to join the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Borgohain, a two-time Congress MLA, would be the second party legislator to leave the Congress and resign from the Assam legislature soon after the state elections to join the BJP, following Rupjyoti Kurmi.
