Rajya Sabha elections: Congress renominates Chhattisgarh MP Phulo Devi Netam

Senior tribal leader Phulo Devi Netam has been renominated by the Congress as its candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections. 

Of the two seats in Chhattisgarh that are going to polls on March 16, 2026, one was held by Ms. Netam while the other by KTS Tulsi. Ms. Netam’s name was announced by the Congress on Wednesday night (March 4, 2026) while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had named OBC leader Lakshmi Verma as its candidate for the biennial elections on Tuesday (March 3, 2026).

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Partywise arithmetic in the State’s legislative Assembly is such that both the parties will be able to get elected one member each to the Rajya Sabha.

Ms. Netam (54) hails from Kondagaon district in the tribal pocket of Bastar. The current State Congress president Deepak Baij also comes from Bastar. Ms. Netam was an MLA between 1998 and 2003. 

Currently she is also the president of Chhattisgarh Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee, a post she has been holding for almost a decade. She has held several important positions in the party and public life.

Former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel congratulated Ms. Netam on X. “Heartiest congratulations and best wishes to Bastar’s daughter, an energetic leader, president of the Chhattisgarh Mahila Congress and Rajya Sabha MP Phulo Devi Netam on being renominated for the Rajya Sabha elections by the All India Congress Committee. We are confident that you will continue to strongly raise issues of public interest in the Upper House of Parliament and fight decisively for the people, as you have done earlier,” he wrote.