The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Percentage of women in Assembly falls short of 10

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 15, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Percentage of women in Assembly falls short of 10

Ramya Kannan

A record 160 women candidates contested the elections

CHENNAI: Forget 33 per cent, this time round, the percentage of women in the Assembly is less than 10, with only 22 seats out of the 234 having female representatives. According to the Election Commission, a record 160 women had contested the polls.

In the last Assembly there were 25 women members (plus a nominated one).

The number of women Ministers remains the same — three. Poongothai Aladi Aruna, Tamilarasi R. and Geetha Jeevan are holding the Social Welfare, Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare and Animal Husbandry portfolios.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) have seven women members each, the Congress three, the PMK one and the Communist parties together four women representatives in the House.

The DMK MLAs in the House (excluding the Ministers) are: Sankari Narayanan (who won from Acharapakkam), Prabhavathi P. (Dharapuram), Angaiyarkanni (Samayanallur) and Rani R. (Uppiliapuram).

Heading the AIADMK team is former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who won from Andipatti. Its other members are: Prema R. (Avanashi), Selvi Ramajayam (Bhuvanagiri), Thenmozhi S. (Nilakottai), Bader Sayeed (Triplicane), Ilamathi Subramanian (Valangiman) and Chandra M. (Rajapalayam). The other women MLAs are: Kamalambal P. (PMK), Padhmavathy P. (CPI), Balabarathi K., Latha G. and Leema Rose (CPI-M) and Ghayathri Devi K., Rani Venkatesan and Yashoda D (Congress).

In 1991, when the AIADMK Government headed by Ms. Jayalalithaa took over, the Assembly had the largest number of women MLAs — 32. While 31 were elected members, one was nominated from the Anglo-Indian community.

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