CHENNAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation on Saturday was a cynical attack on opposition parties, alleged the DMK on Sunday, questioning the BJP on the number of women chief ministers and governors it has appointed.

“Your party governs 20 states. How many women chief ministers do you have,” DMK deputy general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Tiruchi Siva asked, seeking to counter the Centre-ruling BJP’s attempt to portray opposition as anti-women.

Siva added that there was only one woman Governor in the country and alleged that the Centre lacked credibility to question the opposition’s commitment to women’s welfare. “The Prime Minister cannot ignore that the previous legislation (of 2023) succeeded only with Opposition cooperation,” he said in a statement.

He said it was under former chief minister M Karunanidhi that the State enacted legislation granting women equal rights in ancestral property.

Under Chief Minister MK Stalin, women have 50% reservation in local bodies and 40% in government jobs, he said.