TMC suffers another blow as Sushmita Dev resigns from Rajya Sabha

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) suffered another setback on June 10 after Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev resigned from the Upper House, marking the second resignation from the party's parliamentary ranks within a week amid growing internal turmoil.

Dev, a former Congress Lok Sabha MP from Silchar, joined the Trinamool Congress in 2021 after leaving the Congress following her defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. She subsequently emerged as one of the party's prominent national faces, serving as its national spokesperson before being elected to the Rajya Sabha.

Her resignation comes days after senior TMC leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray stepped down from both the Upper House and the party, citing corruption, governance failures and growing public dissatisfaction with the party's functioning.

The twin resignations have intensified concerns over internal dissent within the party led by Mamata Banerjee. Reports indicate that the crisis has extended beyond the state legislature to Parliament, with a section of TMC MPs expressing dissatisfaction with the party leadership. 

In his resignation letter earlier this week, Ray alleged that people had rejected the party due to corruption, failures in governance, law and order issues and atrocities against women. He also praised the newly elected BJP government in West Bengal for initiating developmental measures in the state. 

Dev's departure is likely to further weaken the TMC's strength in the Rajya Sabha at a time when the party is grappling with a broader political crisis following recent electoral setbacks and signs of factionalism within its ranks.

Neither Dev nor the Trinamool Congress had immediately issued a detailed statement on the reasons behind her resignation at the time of reporting.