Senior CPI(M) leader and former Member of Parliament of Vadakara P Satheedevi has been appointed the chief of the Kerala Women’s Commission. The post had been vacant for the last three months since MC Josephine had resigned on June 25 after her alleged insensitive remarks had sparked a row in the state. Earlier, there were speculations that Satheedevi would be picked to head the commission, but the formal announcement was delayed pending approval from the government.

Satheedevi is likely to assume charge as the seventh chairperson of the rights' panel on October 1, a Commission statement in Thiruvananthapuram said. A government notification in this regard was issued on September 22, it added.

A native of Vadakara in Kozhikode district, Satheedevi has previously served as a Lok Sabha member from the constituency from 2004 to 2009. A practising advocate and the state secretary of the All India Democratic Women's Association -- the women's wing of the CPI(M) -- she has also served as president of the Kozhikode district co-operative bank and as director of the state co-operative bank.

Satheedevi is the sister of senior CPI(M) leader P Jayarajan. She is the wife of late CPI(M) leader M Dasan.

Former women's commission chief Josephine, a central committee member of the ruling CPI(M), had to quit the post after a controversy erupted in the state when she spoke harshly to a woman caller who had complained of domestic violence during a live television programme on a Malayalam channel, causing embarrassment to the Marxist party. The woman caller had said that she did not file a complaint with the police against the domestic violence.

Earlier also there were complaints against Josephine for behaving harshly with people who call her for help. She once shouted at a person who had called to help his 87-year-old grandmother, who was the complainant.

(With PTI inputs)