‘Hit squad’ with punch and bite inside Kerala assembly

A look at the five women whose exploits eventually led to adjournment of the budget session.

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A screenhot of the moment when the biting incident is said to have occurred (Courtesy: Reporter TV)

At the centre of the free-for-all in the Kerala assembly earlier this month were five aggressive women MLAs whom the ruling UDF has called the “LDF’s hit squad”. One of them bit a Congressman on the shoulder and at least two of the others got into scuffles with their rivals.

The women MLAs, for their part, have alleged that they were insulted by UDF men. Jameela Prakasam of JD(S) has even accused Congress legislator K Sivadasan Nair of sexual assault. They are pressing for a criminal case against UDF legislators.

A look at the five women whose exploits eventually led to adjournment of the budget session.

Jameela Prakasam, JD(S)
She was the one who bit Congress MLA K Sivadasan Nair on the shoulder. Nair apparently tried to block her as she was approaching the CM. Prakasam has complained to the police, accusing Nair of sexual assault. She says she bit him when he refused to “release” her. Wife of senior JD(S) leader Leelalohitha Dasan Nadar, she took voluntary retirement from a bank in 2011 to contest her first election. Nadar, a former LDF minister who stepped down in the wake of complaints of sexual assault filed by an IAS and an IFS officers (he was acquitted later), quit electoral politics and his wife took his place.

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K K Lathika, CPM
She got into a duel with Congress legislator M A Vahid who was trying to shield the chief minister. It was literally a scuffle between Lathika and Vahid. Later, she was seen being lifted by an opposition legislator to enable her to reach Finance Minister K M Mani. Lathika is the wife of P Mohanan, CPM district secretary in Kozhikode; he was among the accused (later acquitted) in the murder of rebel leader T P Chandrasekharan. In 2010, Lathika and party men had got into a scuffle at a public function in her constituency. A video showed Lathika trying to remove a man’s hand from her shoulder. And in 2013 in the assembly, Lathika had alleged that she was hit by a guard.

K S Saleekha, CPM
A second-time Muslim MLA, married to a CPM activist. Her break in politics came in 1995 after Kerala reserved 33 per cent seats for women in local bodies. Shebecame block panchayat president in her home district, Palakkad, and won assembly elections in 2006 and 2011. Along with Lathika and Jameela Prakasam, she had once rushed to the Speaker’s podium, jumped on it and shouted slogans. This was to demand action against police officers who had roughed up Bijimol and Gopi.

Geetha Gopi, CPI
She began in 2005 from local body politics and worked her way up. She was chairperson of a municipal council in Thrissur district from 2004 to 2009. When the party fielded Gopi for Nattika assembly constituency, she was deputy chairperson with Guruvayoor municipality.

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E S Bijimol, CPI
She was standing on top of a table during the bedlam. She rushed through a vacant aisle, only to be accosted by minister Shibu Baby John. The minister blocked the woman legislators by stretching his arms across the rows of seats. Bijimol tried but failed to break through. She had entered local body politics in 1995 after women’s reservation was introduced. She hails from Idukki and is a state council member of the CPI. She was in the forefront of the Mullaperiyar agitation in 2011.