Why did Sushmita Dev leave Congress and could not join BJP

According to sources in the Congress party, Sushmita Dev, who was given charge of the women wing of the Congress party in 2017 due to her sharp attacks on the government in the Lok Sabha, was feeling isolated since the 2019 general election, writes ETV Bharat's Krishnanand Tripathi.

New Delhi: In a big shock to Sonia Gandhi led Congress party, one of its frontline leaders, Sushmita Dev, on Monday announced her resignation from the primary membership of the party and announced her decision to join All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Sushmita Dev was President of All India Women’s Congress and close confidante of former Congress President Rahul Gandhi. Sushmita was one of the most vocal voices of the Congress Party in the Lok Sabha during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first term when she was Lok Sabha member from Silchar in Assam.

Sushmita Dev, daughter of former Union minister and a veteran Congress leader Santosh Mohan Dev, was always at the forefront of all Congress members in the Lok Sabha who vehemently targeted the government by raising slogans and coming to the Well of the House.

It was her performance during the protests and demonstrations in the Lok Sabha that led the Congress high command to appoint her as national president of the women wing of the party in the Lok Sabha in September 2017.

Sushmita Dev was so crucial for Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha that she joined the list of those Congress MPs in the Lok Sabha who were especially targeted by BJP’s election machinery in 2019 Lok Sabha election to isolate and disarm Rahul Gandhi in the House.

As per a strategy, BJP deployed its star campaigners against Mallikarjun Kharge, a member from Gulbarga Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka, and against Jyotiraditya Scindia in Guna in Madhya Pradesh and Sushmita Dev in Silchar Lok Sabha constituency in Assam. All three were trusted Rahul Gandhi aides in the Lok Sabha and were defeated by BJP candidates in 2019.

In Gulbarga and Guna, BJP engineered defections in the Congress camp and pitted former Congress workers to defeat Kharge and Scindia. BJP poached Congress MLA Umesh G. Jadhav and fielded him against Kharge who had held the fort for the last 10 years.

Similarly, BJP fielded a Congress dissident Kishan Pal Singh Yadav against Scindia to ensure his defeat from Guna, the seat Scindia was winning since 2002 by-elections. Guna seat was represented by Jyotiraditya’s father Madhavrao Scindia, who was killed in a plane crash in Uttar Pradesh in September 2001.

Similarly, star BJP campaigners went all out against Sushmita Dev in Silchar Lok Sabha seat. Prime Minister Modi himself visited Silchar in January and March 2019, and senior RSS functionary Ram Madhav camped in Silchar for two days before polling in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Sarbanand Sonowal, then Chief Minister, also held rallies in Silchar. It showed the importance the BJP attached to defeating Sushmita Dev.

In addition to this, BJP’s master strategist for the northeast region, Himanta Biswa Sarma deployed his full energy to ensure Sushmita Dev’s defeat.

Why did Sushmita Dev leave Congress?

Sushmita Dev is not the only young leader of the Congress party who were unsatisfied with the party and left Congress in recent times.

While Rahul Gandhi’s one of the most trusted former aides, Jyotiraditya Scindia left Congress in March last year after he was isolated in Madhya Pradesh politics by the combined power of two senior Congress leaders, Digvijay Singh and then Congress Chief Minister Kamal Nath. He later helped the BJP to topple Kamal Nath government in the State and was given a Rajya Sabha seat. Scindia has been inducted as civil aviation minister in the cabinet reshuffle in July this year.

Jitin Prasad, former union minister of state during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s tenure, left the Congress and joined BJP in June this year.

According to sources in the Congress party, Sushmita Dev, who was given charge of the women wing of the Congress party in 2017 due to her sharp attacks on the government in the Lok Sabha, was feeling isolated since the 2019 general election.

“After the general elections, she (Sushmita Dev) was hopeful that she would be made in-charge of party organisation (Pradesh Prabhari) in some crucial state but it did not happen and her distance from the party had grown since then,” a party source told ETV Bharat.

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal, who joined 22 other senior party leaders such as Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad, Manish Tewari, and Shashi Tharoor among others to form a pressure group, for demanding internal reforms in the party vented his frustration after Sushmita’s resignation from the party became public on Monday morning.

“Sushmita Dev 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 said in a tweet.

Sibal, who recently hosted an independent dinner to forge unity in opposition parties ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha election, was critical of the party’s handling of the bitter feud between Congress chief minister Ashok Gehlot and Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan.

Sushmita Dev’s departure is not the first incident when Kapil Sibal expressed his concerns over the dangers of young Congress leaders leaving the party.

“Worried for our party. Will we wake up only after the horses have bolted from our stables?” Sibal had tweeted in July last year when there was a bitter factional war between Gehlot and Pilot camps in the Rajasthan unit of the party which threatened the stability of the Gehlot government.

Sibal was later joined by another senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, who publicly appealed to Sachin Pilot to stay in the party and resolve his differences with Gehlot through internal party mechanism, which eventually worked as Pilot left the government but stayed with the party.

Why Sushmita Dev could not join BJP?

According to people familiar with the matter, Himanta Biswa Sarma had offered Sushmita Dev a BJP ticket to contest Lok Sabha election from Silchar in 2019. The offer was a part of the BJP’s strategy to isolate Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha, either by poaching Congress candidates or by ensuring their defeat by engineering defections in the Congress camp.

The Saffron party had succeeded in defeating two trusted Rahul Gandhi aides in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by poaching Congress leaders in Gulbarga in Karnataka and Guna in Madhya Pradesh.

Sushmita Dev, however, turned down the offer, though she was considered close to Himanta Biswa Sarma when he was in the Congress party.

“As per my information, Sushmita was approached by Himanta Biswa Sarma to join the BJP ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls but she did not accept the offer,” a Congress leader familiar with the matter told ETV Bharat.

“Himanta warned Sushmita that if she did not join BJP then the party would ensure her defeat from the Silchar seat. And it happened,” said the leader.

However, Sushmita Dev’s decision to turn down the BJP’s offer before 2019 Lok Sabha elections also shut the saffron party’s door for her in future.

“The BJP maintained distance from her, otherwise, she could have joined the BJP before assembly elections in Assam this year and become a minister in Himanta Biswa Sarma’s cabinet,” said the Congress leader.

“A person like her (Sushmita Dev) will not leave Congress and join TMC unless she has a concrete offer from the party high-command such as a seat in the Rajya Sabha or some other crucial responsibility,” noted the Congress leader.