Former Congress MP Sushmita Dev joins TMC as Mamata expands base

New Delhi, Aug 16: All India Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev who resigned from the Party on Sunday, 15 August joined Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress in the presence of party leaders Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O'Brien on Monday.

In her resignation letter sent to the Congress President Sonia Gandhi, she said would now "begin a new chapter in my life of public service" and would cherish "my three-decades-long association with the Indian National Congress".

Dev had sent her resignation letter to Gandhi on Sunday, though senior Congress functionaries refuted the same even as they wished her well.

Dev, a former MP who has been heading the Congress'' women''s wing for long, 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 has also changed her Twitter bio to former member of the party and former chief of the Mahila Congress.