Sushmita Dev in Congress' manifesto committee for 2019 elections; MP thanks Rahul Gandhi  

Indian National Congress continues to bestow its trust on the member of parliament from Silchar constituency, Sushmita Dev. A year back in September 2017, Dev emerged as the party’s choice to replace Sobha Oza as chief of Mahila Congress. It was widely reported back then that Dev’s appointment as the Mahila Mancha chief is a step to rejuvenate the women wing. A year later, in the run-up to one of the most important elections, the Congress party has decided to include her in the high profile manifesto committee.

Yesterday, the party issued a press release disclosing the name of the members of the core, manifesto and publicity committee. The core committee consists of nine members while the manifesto committee has 19 and the publicity committee has 13 members in each respectively. Alongside Dev, veteran politician Shashi Tharoor, former finance minister P Chidambaram and many other high profile lawmakers are also in the manifesto committee which will summarise Congress’ position and agenda in the 2019 elections.

Dev thinks this would be a great opportunity for her to learn and grow, in a tweet on microblogging social media platform she thanked Congress president Rahul Gandhi and posted, ” Thank you Rahul Gandhi ji. I will work towards a people’s manifesto which is inclusive & progressive. Will do my best to ensure that all the concerns of women & specially the children are reflected. Have so many great minds on the committee, looking forward to learn more.”

Member for Parliament Sushmita Dev is a lawyer and daughter of former union minister late Santosh Mohan Dev. She is currently party’s official spokesperson apart from being the chief of Mahila Mancha. She is also a member of the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) set up to look into Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016. She has been active in both regional and national politics and is considered as someone very close to the party leadership.