KOLKATA: A day after severing her “three-decade-long” ties with Congress, former Lok Sabha MP and Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev flew into Kolkata on Monday to meet chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and formally join the party.
After meeting CM Banerjee, Sushmita said: “Clearly she has an excellent future vision for the party, and I hope to be helpful in this regard.” Sushmita added: “I arrived in Kolkata this morning. I was accompanied by MP Derek O’Brien. I had the opportunity to meet Abhishek Banerjee, who is the party general secretary. He has an excellent vision and clarity for the party. After that, all three of us went to meet the CM at her office.”
A short statement posted on Trinamool’s Twitter handle read: “We warmly welcome the former president of All India Mahila Congress @sushmitadevinc to our Trinamool family!” Sushmita tweeted in reply: “Will give it all I have got…. @MamataOfficial thank you. #KhelaHobe”.
On Sunday, Sushmita submitted her resignation from Congress’ primary membership in a letter to party interim president Sonia Gandhi. She thanked its leaders, members and workers and said she would cherish the three-decade-long association with the party.
Sushmita also expressed gratitude to Sonia and wrote: “Madam, I thank you, personally, for your guidance and the opportunities you gave me. I value the enriching experience; I hope I have your good wishes as I begin a new chapter in my life of public service.”
A party leader dismissed speculations in some quarters that Sushmita had been promised a Trinamool Rajya Sabha nomination. “No specifics or conditions were discussed,” the leader said.
Sushmita might have lost the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Silchar but had bagged over 4 lakh votes, a leader said. Silchar has been the epicentre of anti-CAA protests, which had prompted Trinamool to send an MPs’ delegation in August 2018 that was detained at Silchar airport.
