NEW DELHI, Aug 16 : All India Mahila Congress president and former MP from Silchar Sushmita Dev resigned from the Congress Sunday, and joined Trinamool Congress (TMC) in presence of TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. Inducting Dev into the party, TMC tweeted, “We warmly welcome the former President of All India Mahila Congress Sushmita Dev to our Trinamool family!”

The resignation of Dev — who is the daughter of seven-time parliamentarian Santosh Mohan Dev and considered the face of the Congress in Assam’s largely Bengali-speaking Barak Valley — comes as a big blow to the Congress. In the recently-concluded Assam Assembly elections in May, the Congress— which had partnered with Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front (AIDUF) — was defeated by the NDA alliance. Since then, at least two prominent Congress legislators (Rupjyoti Kurmi and Sushanta Borgohain) have jumped ship to the BJP.