Thiruvananthapuram: 21-year old Arya Rajendran is set to become India's youngest mayor in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation.
Her party, the CPI(M) has chosen her as its Mayor candidate after the party's district and state committees endorsed her candidature. She is a first-time councillor from Mudavanmugal division of Thiruvananthapuram corporation.
She also hit headlines as a student councillor, being a BSc Mathematics student. She is also the party's Chala area committee member.
By fielding the youngest Mayor of the country, the party leadership is hoping to have more educated women into the leadership role.
The CPI-M has won 51 seats in the 100-member council in the recently concluded local body elections. The BJP with 35 seats is the main opposition, but had hoped to more headway in the corporation. The Congress-led UDF was relegated to the third place with 10 councillors. There are four independent councillors in the corporation.
The CPi(M) had projected former chairperson of the Health standing Committee Pushpalatha, Teachers union leader A.G. Olena and Jameela Sreedharan as their Mayor candidates. While Pushplatha and Olena lost in the elections, the party preferred 21-year-old Arya Rajendran over Jameela Sreedharan, who is a retired government employee.
The name of 23-year-old first time councillor from Vanchiyoor division, Gayatri Babu had also come up during the discussion, but Arya was given the green signal as she is the state president of the "Balasangam", the party's children's wing and also a CPI(M) area committee member.
Arya Rajendran, while speaking to the media persons, said, "It's the decision of the party and I abide by it. During the elections, people preferred me as I am a student and the public wanted their representative to be well educated. I will continue my education and will discharge my duties as a Mayor."
(IANS feed with minor edits)