Twenty-one year old Arya Rajendran, who represents the Mudavanmukal ward in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, may become the new mayor of the Kerala capital.
The CPI(M) district committee, had a meeting on Friday, 25 December, following the party’s win in the recently held civic body elections, and has recommended Rajendran’s name as the next mayor.
The state committee is expected to make an official announcement soon, and if they do accept the district committee’s recommendation, then Rajendran may perhaps be the youngest person in India to be appointed to the post.
Rajendran is currently the state president of Balasangam, a children’s organisation affiliated to the CPI(M). She is also a state committee member of the Students Federation of India (SFI), the students’ organisation of the CPI(M). She is currently pursuing her BSC at the city’s All Saints College.
During the campaign for the local body polls in Kerala, Rajendran had told TNM, “Coming from a children's organisation, I would focus on upgrading the lower primary school in the ward.”
Two women candidates – OG Oleena and S Pushpalatha – were earlier projected as mayoral candidates in the recently concluded local body polls. However, while Oleena was defeated from the Kunnkuzhi ward, Pushpalath was defeated in the Nedungad ward.
The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front had emerged victorious in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation for the second consecutive time. The front won 51 out of the 100 wards – an increase in the number of seats it won 2015 with was 43. The results were announced on 16 December 2020.
Arya will be appointed to the post of mayor as per the reservation rules. In Kerala, fifty percent of seats are reserved for women in local bodies, and as per the rules, women head civic bodies alternatively.
In 2015, VK Prasanth of the CPI (M) was chosen as the Mayor. Prasanth quit the post when he was elected as MLA from the Vattiyoorkkav constituency in the Assembly by-elections held in October 2019, which is when K Sreekumar replaced Prasanth as the mayor. Therefore, as per the rules, this time, Arya will be succeeding Sreekumar as the Mayor.
(The story has been published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)
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