00:00Where the troubles for Mamata Banerjee's Trinamore Congress seem to widen by the day,
00:05days after signs of unrest surfaced within its parliamentary party. Another of its senior MPs,
00:11Sushmita Dev, has resigned from the Rajya Sabha and could be heading to the BJP. What also seems
00:18to be happening is some of Mamata Banerjee's other loyalists, including Saini Ghosh, its star
00:25face in the Lok Sabha, apparently have signed on a letter to form a separate faction within the
00:31parliamentary party. Meanwhile, amidst all this turmoil, the TMC General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee
00:38met leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi today, a day after Mamata Banerjee had met Sonia Gandhi,
00:44setting off speculation over a deepening alliance between the Congress and the TMC.
00:53Good to have you on the show, Sushmita Dev. You moved from the Congress to the TMC and now
00:59we are told you're on your way to the BJP. Am I correct that you made the switch from Congress
01:05to TMC to possibly now the BJP?
01:09You know, I need to know for certain what the next steps are. But it is a fact, Rajdeep,
01:17that after I resigned from the party, then I resigned from the Rajya Sabha seat with the
01:23Vice President. And I went to meet the Chief Minister of Assam, Dr. Hemantubhishwa Sharma.
01:30We had a very candid conversation. And I think one thing has been clear right from the start,
01:37like you said, from Congress to Trinamul to wherever, that I would like to focus in Assam
01:44and find a way to work there. So I have expressed that to him. So, I mean, there is no
01:52finality
01:53in our discussion. So he heard me out. So I think you'll have to wait for me to, you know,
02:00confirm that to you. But yes, we did have a, we did have a discussion.
02:08So it's likely, can I say, it's likely that you're on your way to the BJP since you've met
02:13Hemantubhishwa Sharma and it's out in the open?
02:17See, you're asking me to now, you know, say, is this likely, is that likely? I had a discussion
02:23with him. So if tomorrow he comes back and tells me that, look, for whatever reason,
02:28it's not possible. I am hoping that I'll have, I will be in a position to walk into the
02:34chief minister's office and ask him to help me with certain work in my region, which would
02:41not have been possible if I was in the Trinamul Congress. And you know, Rajdeep, when you can't
02:45deliver to your people, you can't hold on to your base, you can't hold on to your support
02:50and gradually you become irrelevant. And I'm definitely not wanting to go down that road.
02:59So tell me, what's the reason that you left? Is it because Mamata Banerjee lost in the
03:04Trinamul Congress is now hemorrhaging? Is that the reason you left? Had Trinamul Congress won
03:09in Bengal, would you have still said, okay, I want to work for the people of Assam, that's
03:13why I'm leaving the party? Because a number of MPs seem to be leaving or MLAs simply because
03:19Mamata Banerjee's party has lost in West Bengal. What was the prime reason why you suddenly decided
03:24to leave the party when just a couple of days ago, you are defending and praising Mamata Banerjee?
03:31See, on the 4th of May, incidentally, it was not just the mandate of Bengal, which has been,
03:38you know, a lot of, which is getting a lot of focus. It's also the mandate of Assam that came.
03:43As you know, in Assam, Congress lost badly. Trinamul Congress won one seat. And BJP got around 102.
03:55So there's a clear mandate there. I know what people are thinking there. Number two is that
04:01it's not just you win some election, you lose some elections. It happens all the time. But I think what
04:07unfolded within the All India Tinamul Congress, right from the 4th of May, I watched the sequence
04:14of events right till 8th of June. And what became crystal clear to me is that, you know, even if
04:22out
04:22of my love and loyalty and respect for Mahmoud Adi, if I continued in All India Tinamul Congress, I didn't
04:29see a way of how I could work in Assam. It's just not practical. I mean, I actually thought to
04:38myself
04:38that, is Mahmoud Adi wondering what to do with me? And am I sitting at home and wondering, how do
04:45I take
04:45this forward? So it's a whole, it's a whole lot of things. It's a whole lot of things put together.
04:50And Radheep, I have no shame in saying that I'm a career politician. I'm not a part-time politician.
04:56It's not like I haven't dedicated my entire last 30 years in it. And I have to look at the
05:03ground
05:03reality and I have to be practical. And I thought this is the best decision I could take for myself.
05:12So is practicality meaning that you have to be proximate to power at all times?
05:17That the closer you are to power, for career politicians being proximate to power is the
05:23only way forward? See Radheep, it's a fact that Mamta Didi was in power when I joined
05:32Tinamul in 2021. But I don't know whether you will understand because I hope you do because
05:39you came to Tripura. Every place or every area that I was asked to work in was one of the
05:47toughest. It was like a greenfield project I was giving. And I can say it with great conviction
05:53that I was asked to handle Tripura. I was asked to handle Assam. And at least in Assam,
06:00I'm leaving the Tinamul, putting them in a better position, not worse, even though it's a one single
06:07MLA. So I have, my conscience is clear. And I think everybody has the right to change their mind.
06:13It's my right. Why should I not be able to change my mind? I mean, Radheep in 2026 assembly elections,
06:20we saw Congress give 294 candidates against the Tinamul. Okay. And on 8th of June, all is well.
06:29So if top leaders and senior leaders and astute leaders can change their mind,
06:34I don't think anybody should question me if I have a change of mind.
06:38All I've learned up about this moment
06:38you go to the children's축 havia cures.
06:38you approach the as one of the vaccinated sausages happen,
Comments