Agartala, May 24 (TIWN): Jitendra Chowdhury, who has been winning the Manu Assembly since 1993, today resigned as MLA to pave the way for taking up the job of Member of Parliament.

He tendered his resignation letter to the Deputy Speaker of Tripura Legislative Assembly- Pabitra Kar. After the submission of the resignation letter, Chowdhury interacted with the other MLAs.

The Left Front supported CPI(M) wining candidate for the Tripura East (ST) parliamentary constituency- Jitendra Chowdhury (56) started his political career way back in 1972 as a member of SFI. During mid 1970s he joined TSF but soon he could see through their tribal chauvinist and anti-development role and the game plan to become a toy at the hands of Congress and left that organization. After studies and a brief stint as an employee of Tripura Gramin Bank, Jitendra Chowdhury left the job and started working as an organizer of Tribal Youth Federation (TYF).

He became a member of CPI(M) in 1982 and became a whole timer of the party. He served as president and general secretary of TYF for a few terms. He also served as all India vice president of DYFI. In 1983 he contested for the first time as CPI(M) candidate from Manu.

Though he lost in his first two attempts, in 1993 he became victorious from this constituency. In 1993 itself he was inducted into the third Left Front ministry led by Comrade Dasharath Deb. Since then he has won from Manu five consecutive times and had held several important portfolios of the government.

He has successfully handled charges of sports and youth affairs, information and culture, forest, rural development, industries and commerce and IT. In the 7th Left Front Government he was the minister for Rural Development, Forest, Industries and Commerce and Information Technology. It was during his stint as Rural Development minister that the state has in the last five years topped in implementation of MNREGA.