After 31 years with Cong, Manish Tewari becomes a minister

Though a first time Member of Parliament, All India Congress Committee spokesperson Manish Tewari has a long association of nearly 31 years with the Congress, since joining its youth wing in 1981.

The 47-year-old leader was seen as a strong defence line of the Congress in the Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party's onslaught.

Tewari, who was the president of the Indian Youth Congress from 1998 to 2000, lost the 2004 Lok Sabha polls but successfully contested the 2009 general elections from Ludhiana by defeating Shiromani Akali Dal's candidate Gurcharan Singh Galib by a margin of over one lakh votes.

During his pre-university days, he joined the youth wing of the Congress and rose to become its All India Youth President before becoming the secretary of the AICC. He was appointed as the Congress's spokesperson in 2008.

Tewari comes from an eminent Punjabi family. His father V N Tewari, a professor of Punjab University, was part of the freedom movement and was killed by terrorists in 1984, a few months before Operation Blue Star.

Tewari's grandfather Sardar Tirath Singh too was an advocate and minister in the Congress government in Punjab.