Thiruvananthapuram: Senior CPM leader and former Member of Parliament, P Satheedevi will succeed M C Josephine as the new chief of the Kerala State Women's Commission.

The 64-year-old Sathidevi is a former Lok Sabha member and is presently the secretary of the Democratic Mahila Association, the women's wing of the CPM.

The Commission in its statement said that she will take charge on October 1 at its headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram.

She is the sister of former party legislator and one of the most popular leader from Kannur - P Jayarajan.

Her husband is also a former CPM legislator from Kozhikode - M. Dasan who passed away in 2002.

The post had been remaining vacant for the last three months since Josephine had resigned on June 25 after her alleged insensitive remarks sparked a row in the southern state.

Satheedevi would assume charge as the seventh chairperson, a government notification in this regard was issued on September 22.

She had also served as the president of Kozhikode district co-operative bank and the director of state co-operative bank.

Josephine, a central committee member of the CPM, had to quit the post after a controversy erupted in the state after she spoke harshly to a woman complainant of domestic violence during a live television programme of a Malayalam channel, causing embarrassment to the Marxist party.