In the past 20 years in the present day Coimbatore district, there has been only one woman Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA). The MLA was Maheswari S., who won on Indian National Congress ticket in 2001 in the then Coimbatore West Assembly constituency.
Records available with the Election Commission say that she secured 40,372 votes to emerge the winner. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s C.T. Dhandapani was the candidate she had defeated. He had secured 30,281 votes.
In 2001, the Coimbatore district included parts of the present day Tirupur district as well and had more than 10 Assembly constituencies.
But the present day Coimbatore district has 10 constituencies. (The current district boundary was taken as reference for this report and therefore, in the 1996, 2001 and 2006 elections, only nine Assembly constituencies fall within the limit.)
At the time of Ms. Maheswari’s victory, there were five women contestants – one from the Indian National Congress, two from the DMK and two Independents. In the Assembly election in the State that year, 112 women had contested and of those 25 were elected to the Assembly.
In the 1996, 2006 and 2011 Assembly elections, the district had not had a woman winner. But in 1996, there were two women contestants, in 2006 16 women contestants and in 2011 only one contestant.
Political observers say the statistics simply mean that the political parties have not given enough opportunities for women candidates.
There have also been occasions where the political parties have used namesakes of popular women candidates to confuse the voters and that are how in 2006 the number of women candidates went up.
In 2006 in the then Perur Assembly constituency, to confuse the voters, there were three candidates named Rukmani and two named Velumani.
Ms. Maheswari, who is now with the Tamil Manila Congress and surprised at the distinction of being the only woman MLA in the last 20 years, says irrespective of party, women do not get a chance to prove their mettle as men try to sideline women leaders. But there have been enough instances of women proving men wrong.
