22 women make it to TN Assembly

Chennai, May 12 (UNI) As many as 22 of the 160 women candidates, who contested the May eight Assembly election in Tamil Nadu, have made their way into the Legislative Assembly.

The list of successful women candidates include 19 first timers.

They will make their presence in the House along with AIADMK general secretary and former chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

Three first-time MLAs of the DMK -- Poongothai Aladi Aruna (Alangulam), Geetha Jeevan (Tuticorin) and Tamilarasi (Samayanallur) -- are also lucky enough to be made Ministers.

Congress veteran D Yasodha and CPI(M)'s firebrand leader Balabarathi are the other two senior women members in the House.

While the DMK and the AIADMK have an equal representation of seven women members each, the Congress and the CPI(M) have three women representatives each, followed by the PMK and the CPI one each.

Ms Yasodha was re-elected from the Congress citadel of Sriperambudur and Ms Balabarathi was elected from Dindigul for the second consecutive term.

While Ms Jayalalithaa coasted to an impressive victory in Andipatti by defeating her DMK rival P Seeman by a margin of 25,009 votes, her school friend Badar Sayeed, a greenhorn, conquered the DMK bastion of Triplicane in Chennai city.

Ms Padmavathy, the lone woman MLA of the CPI, was elected from Nannilam, while the CPI(M) was represented by Latha (Gudiyatham) and Leema Rose (Thiruvattar), besides Ms Balabarathi.

The PMK will be represented in the House by a lone woman MLA Kamalambal.

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