Congress Leader Sushmita Dev Quits Party

NEW DELHI:
Congress leader and the party”s women”s wing chief Sushmita Dev has quit the party and sent her resignation letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi, sources said on Monday.

She may join the Trinamool Congress, they also said.

Dev, a former MP, is currently a national spokesperson of the Congress and is the All-India Mahila Congress chief.

She offered no reason for her quitting the party.

In her letter to Gandhi on Sunday, Dev said she was beginning a “new chapter in my life of public service”.

Dev also changed her Twitter bio to a former member of the Congress and former chief of the Mahila Congress.

She said she is resigning from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress.

“I cherish my three-decade long association with the Indian National Congress…I hope I have your good wishes as I begin a new chapter in my life of public service,” she said in the letter.

The Congress said no letter has been received from her but wished her well.

Party chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said he and other party leaders have tried to reach out to her but her phone was switched off.

“I am unable to speak to her as Sushmita ji”s phone is switched off. We have tried to reach out to her.

“Sushmita ji is a very dear friend. She is extremely versatile, talented and capable. Sonia Gandhi ji and Rahul Gandhi ji have always appreciated it,” he told reporters when asked about her resignation.

Surjewala said Dev has a generational relationship with the Congress ideology and Congress family and we treat her as a member of that family.

“I am certain that she is mature enough to take whatever political decision that she takes with an appropriate consideration of her history, her legacy as also her own capacities. I only wish her the best for her future,” he said.

Soon after her resignation, another Congress leader Kapil Sibal has, however, said the party is moving on with its “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 former union minister said on Twitter.

“The Party moves on with: Eyes Wide Shut,” Sibal also said.

Dev had met the Congress president along with other leaders of the Assam Congress only on Saturday.

Her Twitter account was also temporarily blocked last week after she shared Rahul Gandhi”s picture with the parents of the nine-year-old victim of alleged rape and murder in Delhi.