Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 19 - The Kerala government Wednesday decided to convene a special session of the state assembly Sep 8-17 to bring in a new law reserving 50 percent seats in the local legislative bodies for women.

'The main reason to call the special session is to pass this new law to ensure that 50 percent of seats are reserved for women in the local bodies,' Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan told reporters.

Currently, there are 20,554 elected representatives in Kerala, of which 33.33 percent seats are reserved for women.

Kerala has 1,224 local self-government institutions that include 999 gram panchayats (village councils), 152 block panchayats, 14 district panchayats, 53 municipalities and five corporations.

The polls to these local government bodies are slated to take place in September next year.