Sushmita may lead Trinamool charge in Tripura, Assam

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress is eyeing the Northeast in the run-up to the next general elections and may ask former Congress MP Sushmita Dev to nurse the party organisation in Tripura and Assam, both BJP strongholds.
Mamata Banerjee’s party is hoping to wrest some of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the seven northeastern states and Sikkim in 2024, not a mean feat if achieved given that the Northeast Democratic Alliance of 11 parties supports the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.
“The party may entrust former MP Sushmita Dev with the responsibility to nurse the party organisation in Tripura and Assam,” Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha member Sukhendu Sekhar Ray said, adding that the party would not give the BJP a walkover in the Northeast.
Both Tripura and Assam have a substantial Bengali-speaking population. Sushmita, a former MP from Silchar who recently joined Trinamool, told a private TV channel that Congress was not “interested” in the Northeast while the BJP was “hand in glove” with Maulana Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in Assam.
The daughter of former Union minister Santosh Mohan Dev, Sushmita is well acquainted with the political situation in Assam and Tripura. Her father was elected to Parliament five times from Silchar and twice from Tripura West.