How Kerala’s Patriarchy Keeps Women Out of the Assembly

Eleven women will take the oath to the 140-member 16th Legislative Assembly in Kerala—one less than the number of women in the previous Assembly.
In a state that prides itself on its literacy and high social indices, the imbalance in the political representation of women in the Legislative Assembly is striking. The number of women representatives does not do justice to the demographic profile of Kerala. According to the latest Election Commission figures, the number of female voters in Kerala is nearly 1.4 crore while male voters stand at 1.3 crore.

While all political parties depend on women workers for mass programmes, protests and publicity, women are conspicuous by their absence as we go up the ladder. Since the first election post Independence in Kerala, the percentage of women in the 140-member Kerala Legislative Assembly has never crossed 10%.

Of 890 candidates in the fray in this election, just 46 were women. The United Democratic Front (UDF) fielded 12 women, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) 18, and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) 16.

The newly elected MLAs are K.A. Thulasi, Uma Thomas, Bindu Krishna, Ramya Haridas, Shanimol Osman, Vidya Balakrishnan, Usha Vijayan from Indian National Congress, K.K. Rema of Revolutionary Marxist Party of India (RMPI), Geetha Gopi of Communist Party of India (CPI), O.S. Ambika of Communist Party of India (Marxist), and Fathima Thahiliya from Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

Fathima, the first IUML woman Member of the Legislative Assembly won from the Left stronghold of Perambra by defeating CPI(M) veteran T.K. Ramakrishnan. All eyes are on this 34-year-old lawyer who came up through the ranks of the youth wing of the IUML.

Many of the women candidates, including seasoned ones, had to deal with severe trolling and cyber abuse. While some have registered complaints, most chose to ignore it as that women with an opinion are often subject to cyberattacks.

Most women have had to raise their voices to be considered candidates for the Assembly and the Lok Sabha elections. Even the constituencies given to women have come under scrutiny. While male candidates are given safe ones (read ‘winnable’), women are often forced to contest against bigwigs. For instance, Lathika Subash, former president of the Kerala Mahila Congress, took on CPI(M) veteran V.S. Achuthanandan from Malampuzha, his stronghold, in the 2011 Assembly election. This is a familiar narrative as far as women candidates are concerned. Lathika Subash quit the Congress in 2021, citing bias towards women, and continues to be active in politics as an independent. Shobhana George, Padmini Thomas and Padmaja Venugopal (daughter of late Congress leader and former Chief Minister K. Karunakaran) had also quit the Congress alleging unfair policies against women.

In the 2026 Assembly election, most of the sitting MLAs were allotted the constituency from where they had won. However, a major exception was K.K. Shailaja, perhaps the tallest among the women candidates in the fray. She had won with a margin of 60,963 votes from Mattannur in the 2021 Kerala Assembly election.

The three ministers in the second Pinarayi government, all of whom lost, contested from the constituency that they had won in the previous election. However, the LDF shifted Shailaja to Peravoor where she lost to Congress leader Sunny Joseph. The sidelining of Shailaja has been a recurring thread after she won international acclaim for her work as health minister during the first Pinarayi government. She was not included in the Cabinet of the second Pinarayi government or given a post that did justice to her stature as an excellent administrator and a popular politician.

One was reminded of the way the CPI(M) had pushed another stalwart to the margins—K.R. Gouriamma, the woman who could have been the first woman Chief Minister of Kerala. Instead, she was expelled from the CPI(M). Fed up with the machinations within the party, Gouriamma formed her own party and continued her political career till her death.

It was the same in the case of Susheela Gopalan, who also happened to be the wife of A.K. Gopalan, the first Leader of the Opposition in Parliament. Her name also came up for the post of Chief Minister after the 1996 election but the CPI(M)’s choice was E.K. Nayanar.

The CPI(M) seems uncomfortable with the idea of women leading them. Nevertheless, it is true that CPI(M) and CPI have given the most number of ‘winnable’ seats to women and also to women who have come up through its feeder organisations.

Feminist scholar, academic and author J Devika says the misogynistic political culture has to change before women can be assured of equal representation. “Liberal thinking demands that women have a representation in the Assembly that befits the demographic profile in Kerala. However, for that, the macho body language and posturing of male politicians have to undergo a change. I am happy that, to a certain extent, some of the male candidates with such blatant misogynistic attitudes have been discarded by the electorate this time,” says Devika.

She adds that the patriarchal party set-up expects women politicians in all the political parties to be “good girls” who crave validation from the men. “However, there are exceptions. K.K. Rema, Fathima, Uma and Shanimol are not in the good girl mould.  The present Assembly will have some women who are not afraid of speaking up.”

Devika points out that the landslide win of certain leaders has to be viewed with concern. “In the late nineties, social activist K. Ajitha had raised allegations against a leader’s involvement in the exploitation of young girls. The tragedy is that people still vote for him and it almost looks like society has not taken cognizance of the voice of feminists in Kerala. That is also because the feminist voice is seen to be partisan and identified with certain political parties. If these voices did not have a political bias, perhaps they would have been acknowledged by all,” she says.

Mini Sukumaran, academic and member of the Kerala State Planning Board, says it is a sad commentary on the patriarchal set-up that still reigns over the political landscape in Kerala that the impressive gains made by women at the panchayat level have not translated into more seats for women in the Legislative Assembly. “Thanks to the reservation for women in the local bodies, there have been remarkable changes in the local self-government institutions, panchayats, corporations and municipalities. Many women have come up through the ranks and they have proved their efficiency beyond doubt as administrators and political leaders. Nevertheless, none of this is reflected in the number of women who get selected as candidates during the elections to the Assembly or the Parliament,” she says.

Devika also says that the local self-governing bodies with 33% representation has helped women prove themselves. “There was a misconception that women would not be adept at dealing with the politics of capital. But their competent work has proved that wrong.”

Mini adds that just numbers will not be enough. This time around, the BJP-led NDA had fielded 18 women, all of whom lost. Instead of going only by gender or numbers, Kerala needs women politicians with a progressive outlook who can also contribute to the gender dialogue in India and shape policy. “We need leaders who can work for the welfare of all and envision a country where all are equal and have access to the nation’s resources,” says Mini.
Till then one hopes that the 11 women will make a difference in the Assembly and that the women in the winning UDF are given berths in the Cabinet as well.

Saraswathy Nagarajan is a senior journalist based in Thiruvananthapuram.