Assam Assembly Elections 2021, Sushmita Dev profile: Congress leader faces uncertain future in party, politics

It’s been a hard couple of years for All India Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev. The woman described as the ‘Indira Gandhi’ of Barak Valley, by Priyanka Gandhi no less, was handed a surprise defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the high-profile Silchar constituency. That too by the BJP’s Rajdeep Roy, a rookie candidate. In 2020, Dev became just the third Congress leader, after Sanjay Jha (now suspended) and Abhishek Singhvi, to have turned positive for the coronavirus. And on 6 March, Congress had to dismiss reports in a section of the press that she had resigned over differences with party leaders over seat-sharing with the AIUDF. Party sources claimed that Dev barged out of a Congress meeting on the selection of candidates at a Guwahati hotel. All eyes will be on whether Congress gives Dev a ticket for the Assembly polls and questions abound over Dev’s future within the party. Personal history Dev was born on 25 September, 1972, in Silchar to Bithika Dev and Santosh Mohan Dev. Her father was a veteran Bengali Congress leader. Her mother previously represented Silchar as an MLA. A lawyer by profession, Dev has a BA (Hons) in Political Science, Bachelor of Laws (LLB), Masters in Law(LLM) and Bar-At-Law (UK). Her hobbies include reading and golf.