Thiruvananthapuram: For the first time since 2001, there will be double digit representation of women MLAs in the Kerala Assembly as 11 of them have been elected to the 140 member house in the April 6 polls.
A total of 103 women contested in the elections, but only 11 made it into the assembly, as per the Election Commission figures.
The number of women representatives in the Assembly was just eight in the 2016 elections.
There were 13 women MLAs in Kerala in 1996, the highest ever. Women MLAs have never exceeded 10% of Kerala legislative assembly.
This time, there will be 10 ruling LDF women MLAs and a lone woman representative of the UDF opposition camp- the front-backed RMP leader K K Rema, who won from Vadakara in Kozhikode.
As the widow of slain RMP leader T P Chandrasekharan, this victory was also sweet personal revenge for Rema against the ruling CPM.
A firebrand local leader who broke away from the Marxist party, Chandrasekharan was hacked to death, allegedly by the CPM workers on May 4, 2012.
Health Minister K K Shailaja will enter the House with a record majority of over 60,000 votes from Mattannur constituency.
It is the second term for Veena George, C K Asha and U Prathibha.
The prominent losers include Fisheries Minister J Mercykutty Amma, former Congress minister P K Jayalakshmi, ex-MLA Shanimol Usman, DCC president Bindhu Krishna and senior BJP leader Sobha Surendran.
Though BJP-NDA fielded the most number of women (20) in the April 6 polls, none of them made it to the House.
Kerala's first MLA was a woman. Rosamma Punnoose, who won from Devikulam constituency, took oath as the first MLA in the post-independence assembly in 1957. She became the protem speaker and administered oath to the other MLAs.
(With inputs from PTI)
