For political parties in Tamil Nadu, 33 per cent reservation for women is only rhetoric as their words have not translated into action in allotment of seats for women for the April 13 Assembly polls.
The AIADMK, headed by former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, has fielded candidates for 160 constituencies but only 11 women candidates have been given seats, which is about 7 per cent. The ruling DMK has allotted around 9 per cent of seats (11 seats) to women candidates out of the 119 constituencies it is contesting from.
The Congress, which has announced its candidates for 60 constituencies, has allotted six seats to women, which amounts to 10 per cent. The DMDK, the second largest party in the AIADMK-led alliance, has allotted only two seats to women out of the 41 seats. This comes to just about 5 per cent representation for women. The CPI(M) has allotted two seats to women out of the 12 seats it is contesting.
The KNMK has not fielded any women candidates. The CPI too on Wednesday announced its list of candidates for the 10 seats allotted to it, but did not field any woman.
CPI floor leader in the outgoing state Assembly, V Sivapunniyam, was not given re-nomination while two of its sitting MLAs were retained. The party, which has one woman legislator in the present House, will be contesting in constituencies including Tiruthuraipoondi, Valparai and Puthukottai.
Both Dravidian parties were staunch supporters of the passage of the 33 per cent women reservation bill in Parliament.
In the 2006 state Assembly elections, the AIADMK, which had contested in 165 seats, fielded 23 women candidates, and the DMK, 12 candidates out of the 132 seats it contested. Of the 156 women who contested the elections, 22 got elected.