New Delhi: Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev has urged the leadership of both the Congress and her own party to work out a seat-sharing arrangement ahead of next year’s Assam assembly elections to mount a stronger challenge to the ruling BJP.
Dev, a former Congress MP who represented the Silchar Lok Sabha seat from 2014 to 2019, cautioned that the Congress—the principal opposition party in Assam—stands to lose seats unless it is willing to make “sacrifices” to accommodate other opposition forces, including the TMC.
“Just like it is for Mamata di to show her large-heartedness in Bengal, it is for Congress to make sacrifices in Assam to adjust other parties. Short of that, nothing’s going to come out of it. But I personally feel there should be some sort of an arrangement,” Dev told ThePrint in an interview.
The TMC is a member of the INDIA bloc of opposition parties. However, it is not an electoral ally of the Congress, which allies with the Left in elections in West Bengal.
Conceding that the TMC was a marginal force in Assam politics, Dev said the party was primarily eyeing contesting seats in Barak Valley—the southernmost region of Assam with a predominantly Bengali population—as well as Lower Assam, home to a large Muslim population, and Middle Assam.
Assam has a 126-member legislative assembly.
Dev also blamed the Congress for the collapse of seat-sharing talks between the two parties ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, suggesting that a lack of flexibility cost the Opposition.
She said the TMC wanted to contest from two seats in the Northeast—Silchar in Assam and Tura in Meghalaya. And in return, the party was willing to set aside three to four seats for the Congress in West Bengal. Eventually, the BJP won the Silchar seat, and the Congress won the Tura seat.
While expressing support for an understanding between the two parties in the upcoming polls, Dev stressed that the final decision rests with the high commands of both the Congress and the TMC.
“West Bengal and Assam elections almost happen simultaneously. So what will happen in Assam will depend on (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee and what transpires in Bengal. But if the Congress, this is my view, doesn’t manage all these parties, including the TMC, in 2026, they stand to lose several seats. They should find a way to enter upon some sort of an electoral understanding provided the high command of Congress and our high command agree,” she said.
Dev, who quit the Congress in 2021, comes from a family with deep roots in the party. Her father, late Santosh Mohan Dev, was elected to the Lok Sabha seven times between 1980 and 2004 and also served as a Union minister in the Manmohan Singh cabinet.
Dev also served as the president of the All India Mahila Congress from 2017 to 2021.
Her induction into the TMC was initially seen as a significant boost to the party’s prospects in Assam. However, that momentum has since waned, with the party grappling with internal factionalism. Two state presidents—Ripun Bora and Romen Chandra Borthakur—have stepped down in quick succession since September 2024.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
