Chhattisgarh Mahila Congress chief Phulodevi Netam resigns

Rajya Sabha MP Phulodevi Netam on Tuesday resigned as president of the Chhattisgarh Mahila Congress, saying she wants to make way for other women colleagues in the party to be considered for the organisational post in the poll-bound state.

Netam has been holding the top state post in the Congress women's wing for the last seven years.

The development comes nearly a week after Chhattisgarh Congress president Mohan Markam was replaced with Lok Sabha MP Deepak Baij in an organisational reshuffle ahead of the assembly elections due by the year-end. Markam was later inducted into the Bhupesh Baghel cabinet. 

Netam posted the resignation letter on her Twitter handle and wrote she has discharged her duty as chief of the Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee with full dedication, and requested that the job be given to some other woman colleague. 

Netam, a prominent tribal leader from the Bastar region, was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2020 from Chhattisgarh. 

In her resignation letter addressed to Mahila Congress national president Netta D'souza, Netam stated,"I thank you for giving me an opportunity to work as president of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Mahila Congress...I am also grateful to all members of the Chhattisgarh Mahila Congress who have given me so much love and with whose support I have been able to complete my tenure."

"It has been seven years since I have been on the post and I believe that now another female colleague should get an opportunity to work on this post,"she said.

The Rajya Sabha MP said she will continue to work to strengthen the party, which came to power in Chhattisgarh in 2018 after ending the 15-year rule of the BJP. 

Asked about the move, Netam told PTI that no one asked her to resign. Queried about contesting the upcoming assembly elections, the Congress leader said she will abide by instructions of the party high command. 

Netam had been the MLA of Keshkal (1998-2003) in the Bastar division and unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Kanker.