INDIA bloc women leaders to address DMK Women Leaders Conference in Chennai on Oct 14

CHENNAI: The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu will hold the Women Leaders Conference in Chennai on October 14, said MP and party's deputy general secretary K Kanimozhi on Monday. Addressing a press conference here, Kanimozhi said that a galaxy of top women leaders of the Opposition-led INDIA bloc, including former Congress President Sonia Gandhi, General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi and PDA Chief Mehbooba Mufti will attend the conference.

"On 14th October Women Leaders Conference will take place in Chennai. Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, from Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti and a few more national leaders will be participating in the conference," she said. She further said that the invitations would be given to all the DMK alliance parties too.

The conference, which will be chaired by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, will press the central government for the immediate implementation of 33 per cent reservation of women in Parliament and state Assemblies. "On October 14, we are having a women's rights conference, where women leaders from the INDIA alliance will be participating. We will be talking about the women's reservation bill and what it translates into at this conference. NCP leader Supriya Sule and leaders from other parties like AAP and TMC will also be there," she added.

Further, taking a swipe at the BJP-led Central Government, she said that the reservation which was passed recently by the Parliament during its special session is just an 'eye wash'. "The 33 per cent reservation for women brought by the BJP government is just an eye-wash. As far as the reservation issue is concerned, it seems that it cannot be implemented even if it takes another 25 years until the census and constituency redefining," the DMK leader said.