Meet Arya Rajendran, India's youngest mayor

Agencies | Thiruvananthapuram 

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Kerala's capital city Thiruvananthapuram has pulled off a mayoral first as 21-year-old college student Arya Rajendran is all set to take on the mantle. She will be the youngest mayor anywhere in the country.

The decision to appoint Arya, who was elected as the ward councillor from Mudavanmugal in the recently held civic body polls, was taken by a panel of CPM district secretariat. She was the youngest candidate CPM had fielded for the local body polls in 2020.

The left-dominating local body in the state capital was retained by LDF, but it faced a strong setback as two of its mayoral candidates and existing mayor faced losses. Jameela Sreedharan, a senior candidate representing Peroorkada ward in the city was initially under consideration to be the mayor. However, there occurred a collective demand to pick a younger person for the coveted position.

A second-year BSc Mathematics student in All Saints' College in Thiruvananthapuram, Arya has been very active politically and is a state committee member of the Students Federation of India. She is currently also the Kerala president of Balasangham, which is CPM's children wing.

She told reporters on Friday that she would gladly take up the role entrusted to her by the party and hopes that her education and political work would go hand in hand.

Arya was also the youngest candidate in the fray in the civic body election, in which the Left Democratic Front won five of the six municipal corporations, and made big gains in district panchayats as well. Before the election, she had stated that she’d focus on upgrading the lower primary schools apart from continuing the other developmental work already ongoing if she was elected.