THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With state party chief K Sudhakaran’s response to the spokesperson’s complaint about lack of women representation in the Congress candidate list for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections snowballing into a controversy, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan has sought to assuage Congress' Shama Mohammed, terming her grievances genuine.
“It’s true. There is only one woman among the party candidates in Kerala. We are also upset about the turn of events. We could not provide more seats as it was decided to field sitting MPs. However, it should be remembered that we gave the first Rajya Sabha seat to a woman,” Satheesan said on Monday.
Days after late party veteran K Karunakaran’s daughter Padmaja Venugopal left the grand-old party to join the BJP citing the slight being faced by women in the Congress, Shama had expressed disappointment and anguish at the way in which the party leadership had given ticket to only one woman in the state.
“In 2019, there were two women candidates in Kerala. But after passing of the Women’s Reservation Bill, there has been only one candidate. This has been my greatest disappointment,” she said.
When reporters approached Sudhakaran for his comment on her complaint, he retorted, “Go and ask her. She’s nobody in the party.” This led to several trolls on social media where a photo of Sudhakaran along with Shama was widely circulated by his political detractors with the caption, “Sudhakaran with nobody”.
