Congress again fails to send woman from Kerala to Lok Sabha

Thiruvananthapuram, May 17 (IANS) In matriarchal Kerala, Congress' Savithiri Lakshman continues to be the only woman party leader to win a Lok Sabha election ever in the state, with the two women candidates fielded by the party coming a cropper in 2014 poll.

Lakshman represented Mukundapuram (which now does not exist post the 2009 delimitation process) constituency in 1989 and 1991 and has been member in the Kerala state Assembly twice.

In the 2014 poll, Congress had fielded two women candidates in Kerala - Bindhu Krishna, who lost from Attingal by a margin of 69,378 votes and Sheeba who contested from the reserved constituency of Alathur in Palakkad district, but too lost by a margin of 37,312 votes.

Both candidates lost to sitting Communist Party of India-Marxist Lok Sabha members.

Over the past 65 years, only seven women politicians from Kerala have made it to the Lok Sabha. This time P.K.Sreemathi of the CPI-M, a former state health minister and central committee member of the party would become just the eighth woman from Kerala, who will enter the lower house of parliament.

The CPI-M fielded senior woman leader P.K.Sainaba in Malappuram constituency against Indian Union Muslim League leader and Minister of State for External Affairs E.Ahamed who has never tasted defeat since first entering the Lok Sabha in 1991.

As expected, she lost the contest giving Ahamed the highest margin in Kerala in these elections with 1,94,739 votes.

This aspect of male dominance in Kerala's electoral politics comes at a time when Kerala has the highest gender electoral ratio which stands at 1,079 women to 1,000 men.