Thiruvananthapuram: ‘What is wrong with a woman?’- This was the voice of a woman legislator in the 14th Kerala Assembly (2016 - 2021).
CPM leader and Kerala Health Minister K.K. Shailaja had raised her voice in response to another legislator K.M. Shaji’s misogynistic remarks against Mamata Banerjee during the Assembly proceedings more than a year ago in the House. Then, there were only 8 women legislators who were elected in 2016 to the Kerala Assembly.
Now, after the 2021 State elections, the 15th Kerala legislative assembly has 11 women MLAs out of the total 140; only 4 more women legislators added. That is, women still constitute only about 8 per cent of the total Assembly strength.
In the previous election, there were 8 women LDF legislators elected to the Assembly. Later, Shanimol Usman also came in through a bypoll at the Aroor constituency as the sole woman UDF MLA.
In the 2021 elections, the LDF has been able to improve the representation of women legislators from 8 to 10. While eight of the ten newly elected women legislators are from the Communist Party of India Marxist (CPIM), two are from the Communist Party of India (CPI).
Although Shanimol Usman was defeated this time by Daleema, K.K. Rema of the Revolutionary Marxist Party of India (RMPI), who won on a UDF ticket from the Vadakara seat, would become the sole woman MLA for the UDF in 15 the Assembly. Congress has no women representation in the State Assembly this time either.
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Minister K.K. Shailaja had raised her voice in the 14th Kerala Assembly against a gender-biased remark from the K.M Shaji, an Indian Union of Muslim League legislator. She had asked Shaji ‘what was wrong if it was a woman (in power)’ reacting to his remark on Mamata Banerjee. Such reactions and counters are sure to continue within the Assembly and beyond.
Even though she contested from a different constituency this time (Mattannur), K.K Shailaja has reached the 15th Kerala Assembly by aggregating a record high winning margin of 60963 votes.
While J Mercikkutty Amma, who was a Minister in the LDF cabinet, could not make it to the Assembly this time, neither could UDF's Shanimol Usman, who had reached the 14th Assembly through a bypoll.
LDF’s Daleema Jojo, a popular playback singer defeated Shanimol Usman and reached the Assembly from the Aroor constituency. She is one of the fresh faces in the 15th Kerala Assembly. Daleema, who is a CPIM member and Alappuzha District Panchayath vice president, won back the Aroor constituency from the UDF.
Another newcomer in the 15th assembly is Dr R Bindu, principal-in-charge and head of the department of English at Kerala Varma College in Thrissur, contested on a CPIM ticket and won from the Irinjalakkuda constituency. She was the former Mayor of Thrissur Corporation. Her spouse A Vijayaraghavan is the CPIM state secretary.
CPIM’s Veena George, who has won for the second consecutive time from Aranmula, is a Post Graduate in Science and graduate in Education. Veena George entered politics after a long stint as a media person.
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CPIM legislator U Prathibha from Kayamkulam and CPI legislator C.K. Asha are to serve the second consecutive terms as legislators representing the same seats.
Daleema George, U Prathibha and C.K. Asha contested against women candidates in the 2021 Assembly elections in their respective constituencies.
CPIM sends a woman legislator from Kozhikode district after a long time through Kanathil Jameela who represents Quilandy. Jameela is presently the District panchayat president in Kozhikode.
O S Ambika who won from Attingal, a sitting seat of the CPIM, and Advocate K Shanthakumari who won from the Kongad constituency in Palakkad district, are in the Assembly for the first time. Shanthakumari was the district panchayat president of Palakkad earlier. J Chinju Rani who won from CPI’s sitting seat at Chadayamangalam is also a newcomer in the Assembly.
Despite popular woman leaders including Padmaja Venugopal, and Bindu Krishna contesting for the UDF, they were defeated in their seats. The UDF had fielded women candidates in 12 seats of which only K.K Rema won from the Vadakara constituency.
Congress leader Lathika Subash, who had protested against the party’s State leadership for not allocating the deserving number of seats to women candidates, had contested independently from Ettumanoor. Though she could not win the seat, it seems her protest against the leadership’s bias has not died down yet.
The IUML faced a set back as their candidate Advocate Noorbina Rasheed who was fielded in Kozhikode South was defeated. Muslim League was allotting a seat to a woman candidate for the first time in 25 years.
The BJP had fielded 15 women candidates in Kerala including their national leader Shobha Surendran. However, none made it to the Assembly.
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