Annamalai flays DMK over Women Reservation Bill

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president K Annamalai on Wednesday flayed DMK over the Women Reservation Bill and said that the chief minister M K Stalin is masquerading as a champion of women's rights and has to be constantly reminded of his party's legacy.

"Between 2006 and 2011, while DMK was in power, they failed to implement 50 per cent reservation for women in local bodies despite states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and many others implementing the 50 per cent reservation for women during that period, " Annamalai said.

Slamming the DMK for not implementing a prohibition in the state, the saffron party leader said that the DMK has conveniently forgotten the call for prohibition.

"In 2016, former CM M Karunanidhi called the implementation of 50% reservation for women in local bodies a diversion to his call for prohibition in the state. But now, the DMK government is earning more than Rs 50,000 crores a year by robbing the wages of ordinary men of the state and depriving them of economic prosperity, making their families dependent on the government to meet ends, " he added.

Taking a dig at the opposition alliance INDIA, Annamalai said that the parties in the INDIA alliance were vehemently opposed to the increased representation of women in the parliament in the past.

"Parties in the INDIA alliance today welcome the move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But they were vehemently opposed to the increased representation of women in the parliament in the past. This regressive approach is your alliance's legacy, " Annamalai said.

Further, the former IPS-officer turned politician noted that of the 34 ministers in Stalin Cabinet, only two are women.

"Increasing this would not need a census or a delimitation exercise. Ironically, of the 173 candidates in the 2021 assembly elections, only 12 women were fielded by the DMK, a drop from 18 in 2016, which shows the clear lack of will for increased representation of women, " he detailed.