Sangh Parivar Much Better Than Gandhi Parivar: Sushmita Dev Who Recently Joined BJP After Quitting TMC

Published 4 August 2026 · local

Sangh Parivar Much Better Than Gandhi Parivar: Sushmita Dev Who Recently Joined BJP After Quitting TMC Published By, Last Updated: August 04, 2026, 15:31 IST

Sangh Parivar Much Better Than Gandhi Parivar: Sushmita Dev Who Recently Joined BJP After Quitting TMC Published By, Last Updated: August 04, 2026, 15:31 IST Sushmita Dev said while both political forces revolve around "parivar", the Sangh Parivar is a much larger and more democratic institution than being subservient to a single family Rapid Read Sushmita Dev during a meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. (PTI) Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev, who recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), weeks after switching over from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and earlier with the Congress, said that the “Sangh parivar is much better than the Gandhi parivar". In an interview published by The Indian Express on August 4, Dev explained her perspective on the organisational differences between the Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ecosystem. Dev stated that while both political forces revolve around a “parivar" (family/family structure), the Sangh Parivar is a much larger and more democratic institution than being subservient to a single hereditary family.

Reflecting on her time in the Congress, she claimed that “you can’t take on the Gandhi family and survive in the Congress", noting that if leadership at the very top becomes upset with a politician, their career is effectively over. Sushmita Dev’s switch Dev, alongside other high-profile TMC leaders like Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Prakash Chik Baraik, resigned from the Trinamool Congress and their Rajya Sabha seats to formally join the BJP in Kolkata last month. Within days of switching sides, the BJP nominated her for the Rajya Sabha byelections from West Bengal. She was elected unopposed on July 17, 2026, making her political comeback to the Upper House as a BJP MP. Sushmita Dev’s political trajectory Sushmita Dev is a prominent Indian politician whose career trajectory spans leadership roles across three major political parties: the Indian Congress (INC), the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Indian Congress (Early Career to 2021): Sushmita Dev belongs to a prominent political family from Silchar, Assam.

Her father, the late Santosh Mohan Dev, was a veteran Congress leader and Union Minister. She began her political journey with the Congress’s student wing, the Students’ Union of India (NSUI), and later served as a member of the Assam Legislative Assembly (2011–2014). She won the Silchar Lok Sabha seat in 2014, establishing herself as one of the Congress’s most articulate young voices in Parliament. She was appointed the President of the All India Mahila Congress (the party’s women’s wing) in 2017. Following differences over seat-sharing and party strategy during the 2021 Assam Assembly elections, she resigned from the Congress in August 2021. All India Trinamool Congress (2021–2026): Immediately after leaving Congress, Dev joined Mamata Banerjee’s TMC to help expand the party’s footprint outside West Bengal. The TMC looked to exploit her roots in the Bengali-dominated Barak Valley of Assam and her familiarity with Tripura. In September 2021, she was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal on a TMC ticket.