26.12.20

Kerala’s capital set for 21-yr-old woman mayor


Arya Rajendran, 21, a BSc mathematics student who faced her first local body polls as a voter and as a candidate in the Thiruvananthapuram municipal elections, is set to become the youngest mayor in Kerala and among the youngest in India.

The mayoral election is slated for December 28. Arya was chosen as the mayoral candidate for the Thiruvananthapuram civic body at the CPM district secretariat meeting on Friday. A formal announcement of the decison is expected on Saturday. She is certain to be voted mayor in the council where the LDF has an absolute majority with 53 seats.

The BJP and the UDF have 35 and 10 seats, respectively. Arya’s father, Rajendran, an electrician by profession, is an active CPM worker. Her mother, Sreelatha, is a homemaker and LIC agent.

Arya told reporters she was yet to be officially informed about her candidature, but was willing to take up any assignment entrusted to her.

She was elected to the corporation council in the recent civic body polls from Mudavanmugal ward with a majority of 549 votes and sworn in as a councillor on December 21.

The CPM’s choice of a young mayor in 2015 had paid rich dividends after V K Prasanth (34) became hugely popular due to his administrative initiatives and proactive role during the floods and Cyclone Ockhi. Suman Koli had become mayor of Bharatpur municipal corporation in Rajasthan at the age of 21in 2009.

Nuthan Rathore was elected as the first mayor of Firozabad municipal corporation, UP, in 2017 when she was 31. The country has had other young mayors as well. Sanjeev Naik had become mayor of Navi Mumbai at 23 in 1995.

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