Former Silchar MP Sushmita Dev Quits Congress Party

Sushmita Dev Quits Congress: Former Member of the Parliament Sushmita Dev quit Congress Party today, following which she changed her Twitter bio and reportedly exited the party's WhatsApp group as well. Dev was also the president of All Indian Mahila Congress Morcha.

Dev sent her resignation letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi, citing no specific reason to calling it quits. Dev wrote that she was "beginning a new chapter of public service ". Daughter of seven-time parliamentarian Santosh Mohan Dev, Sushmita Dev had been a part of the Congress party for close to three decades.

Who is Sushmita Dev?

Dev was elected as a member of the Parliament from Silchar seat in Assam, in 2014. Her father, also a Congress leader, was a Cabinet Minister. The politician was in news after her Twitter account was recently suspended, alongside several prominent Congress Party leaders, for violation of policy, when they shared a tweet by Rahul Gandhi, which apparently disclosed the identity of the minor who died after alleged rape at a Delhi Cantt crematorium.

Gandhi's Twitter handle was blocked by the social networking platform after he shared an image with the minor girl's parents, because of which his account was suspended. Following this several Congress Party leaders, including Dev, had changed the profile pictures of their Twitter handle to that of Rahul Gandhi's image and had shared the controversial photograph. Their accounts were later blocked too.

Prior to this, Dev had been in news when she differed from her party on the CAA-NRC protests. Surprisingly, Dev had backed CAA saying the people in the Barak Valley region, from where she hails, had seen the struggles of victims of partition up close and thus were in the favour of Citizenship Amendment Act. According to her, CAA would ensure that Bangladeshi Hindus living in the country would be awarded Indian citizenship.  Dev, however, went on to add that she would only support CAA if some amendments were included in it "especially if it included Muslims."

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