Parvathi Krishnan was the first woman MP from Coimbatore and was elected to Parliament three times by the people of Coimbatore.
Coimbatore: Coimbatore has been home to many iconic people in Tamilnadu. Their achievements and feats have rarely not been seen impacting social life of people. Today with the assembly elections round the corner, we thought it would be good to learn about the first female MP from Coimbatore on this International Women’s Day 2021.
Parvathi Krishnan was the first woman MP from Coimbatore and was elected to Parliament three times by the people of Coimbatore. Parvati Krishnan hails from a family of great social workers and political leaders. Her father was the iconic Congress leader, P Subbarayan, who was a Chief Minister of Madras Presidency. Radhabai, India's first female Member of Parliament, was her mother. Parvathi Krishnan, along with former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, studied together at Oxford University in the UK. As a communist, Parvathi Krishnan saw the political arena against her father Subbarayan, a Congressman.
Her husband, a communist, N.K. Krishnan has also been a member of the state legislature. The Communist Party till date praises Parvathi Krishnan as the best parliamentarian and the best trade unionist. The first and only female MP to be elected to Parliament from Coimbatore constituency till date has been Parvathi Krishnan.
Though there is a talk in recent years that Coimbatore is AIADMK’s fort, looking back historically, the Coimbatore constituency has been a fort of the communist parties. With its large number of industries, Coimbatore is home to several lakh workers and MSMEs plying their trade from this enterprising city.
Just as workers played a key role in the development of Coimbatore, so did workers play a key role in the Communists' victory. The basis for the communist victory was the fact that the unions were strong in the workers-filled Coimbatore and were known as the party fighting for the workers.
Coimbatore's first female MP
Although the Congress party won the Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency unopposed in the first general election, it had to face an election. Following the demise of TA Ramalinga Chettiar, by-elections were declared for the Coimbatore constituency. But this time the Communist Party of India and the Independents rallied against the Congress Party. The Coimbatore constituency, however, was retained by the Congress.
Communist Party of India candidate Parvathi Krishnan was defeated by Congress candidate NM Lingam by a margin of 41,000 votes. Meanwhile Parvathi Krishnan also went to Parliament, as a member of the State Legislature. By the next general election India was already enjoying decades of independence. The map of India itself had changed as the language routes were divided. But voters did not change and voted for the Congress party again to win. The Communists sat in the opposition ranks.
The DMK witnessed the polls for the first time with the demand for 'Dravida Nadu' and the slogan 'The North progresses and the South digresses'. In the first election itself, 15 people were elected to the Assembly and 2 to the Lok Sabha. Periyar, who said that his primary task was to uproot the Congress, this time supported the 'Pacha Tamilan' Kamarajan in the Congress. The separation of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala from Madras province weakened the Communists. But on the contrary, Coimbatore was under Communist rule. There were 4 lakh 62 thousand 294 voters in Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency. Communist Party of India candidate Parvathi Krishnan won the election with 2 lakh 31 thousand 245 votes. She defeated Rangasamy, the Congress candidate who contested with 47.76 per cent of the vote, by a margin of 15,000 votes. Parvathi Krishnan entered the Lok Sabha as the first woman MP from Coimbatore in 1957.
MGR, who left the DMK, had started a separate party called AIADMK. In 1974, a by-election was held in the Coimbatore parliamentary constituency. Also by-election to Coimbatore West Assembly constituency. M.G.R. of the ‘Double Leaf’ came to ask for votes for Aranganayakam. Then the Communist Party of India and AIADMK candidate Parvathi Krishnan and MGR collected votes in the streets of Coimbatore and Parvathi Krishnan, who won again, secured victory in the next 1977 general election as well.
She was thus elected to the Lok Sabha from Coimbatore constituency as a Communist Party of India candidate in 1957 & 1977 general elections and the 1974 by-election. She lost the 1962 election to P. R. Ramakrishnan from Indian National Congress party, the 1980 election to Era Mohan from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party (contesting from Coimbatore) and the 1984 election to M. Thambi Durai of the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party (contesting from Dharmapuri).
(With inputs from Prashanth V)