Pad crusader' Pushpa Amarnath replaces Laxmi as Karnataka Mahila Congress chief

Bengaluru: Her online campaign against the GST levied on sanitary napkins in 2017 seems to have catapulted Dr Pushpa Amarnath, former general secretary of the Karnataka state women's Congress committee, to the position of Karnataka Pradesh Mahila Congress president.

Dr Amarnath replaced Dr Laxmi Hebbalkar as president of the organisation on Friday. It is widely believed in political circles that Ms Hebbalkar lost her post due to her open battle with Belagavi's all powerful Jarkiholi brothers and her loyalty to Water Resources Minister D. K. Shivakumar.

But the note from the All India Congress Committee merely said that Congress president, Rahul Gandhi had appointed Dr B. Pushpa Amarnath as president of the Karnataka Pradesh Mahila Congress. Dr Amarnath is known for being outspoken against the GST levied on sanitary napkins and had started an online campaign to revoke it last year. Her petition, which also called for providing free sanitary pads and tampons to women of below poverty line families, garnered more than 2,000 signatures.

From Mysuru, she is a former president of the Mysuru Zilla Panchayat and is counted among the loyalists of former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Chamarajanagar MP R. Dhruvanarayan.

Dr Amarnath pipped her nearest rivals, Dakshina Kannada (DK) District Women's Congress president, Shalet Pinto, and dentist, Dr Nagalakshmi Chaoudhry to the post.