Sushmita Dev, former Congress leader who joined TMC, nominated to Rajya Sabha

The Trinamool Congress on Tuesday nominated Sushmita Dev, who recently joined the party after quitting the Congress, to the upper house of Parliament."We are extremely pleased to nominate @SushmitaDevAITC to the Upper House of the Parliament. @MamataOfficial's vision to empower women and ensure their maximum participation in politics shall help our society to achieve much more!" the party tweeted. Dev, who was one of the national spokespersons of the grand-old party and its women's wing chief, switched over to the Mamata Banerjee-led camp last month.She has been assigned the job of looking after the party's functioning in Assam and Tripura.The Election Commission of India last week had announced bypolls for six vacant Rajya Sabha seats - one seat from Assam, one from West Bengal, two from Tamil Nadu, one from Madhya Pradesh and one from Maharashtra on 4 October. The Bengal seat fell vacant after Manas Bhuyan decided to contest the assembly election. With inputs from PTI