President at the age of 21; Here is Khadeeja, Kerala's first youngest local body chairperson

Ponnani (Malappuram): While Arya Rajendran of Thiruvananthapuram is making headlines with her new title as the youngest mayor in the country, we are going back a quarter of a century through the memories of twenty five years ago. It was in Maranchery Panchayat of Malappuram district that a 21-year-old woman became the chairperson. Khadeeja Moothedath became the youngest panchayat president in the history of Kerala.

As Arya Rajendran of Thiruvananthapuram prepares to become the youngest woman mayor of the state, Khadeeja Moothedath, former president of Maranchery panchayat in Malappuram district, earned the reputation of being the youngest chairperson of a local body. Khadeeja Moothedath of the Indian Union Muslim League(IUML) won the 1995 elections two and a half decades ago.

Khadeeja, who won from the fourth ward of the panchayat got the post of chairperson in her youth at a time when 33 per cent reservation was made for women in local bodies for the first time.

Khadeeja entered the competition while completing her civil engineering diploma and working as a temporary employee in the Public Works Department. Khadeeja, who was successful in the first contest, led several welfare activities in the panchayat. She later became a member of the Block Panchayat for the third time and chaired the Grama Panchayat standing committee once.

She had withdrawn herself from the fray this time after IUML decided to not let anyone to contest again, who had contested for more than three times in local body elections previously.

According to Khadeeja Moothedath, it was only in the recent days that she realized that becoming president at the age of 21, twenty-five years ago, was part of history. She said it was appreciable that more women were entering the public sphere as there was a 50 per cent reservation for women and she was very happy that Arya was moving the same way.

Khadeeja Moothedath is currently the Malappuram district secretary of the Muslim Women's League, the women's wing of Indian Union Muslim League.

Meanwhile a dispute has been raised over the age of Khadeeja Moothedath during the time she took charge as panchayath president in 1995 in social media. As per the documents from the website of local self government elections,Kerala circulated in social media, Moothedath gave her age as 39, when she contested to Gram Panchayat in 2010.

Based on that documents, she was 24 years old in 1995 and thus she is not the first youngest Grama Panchayat president of the state, claims critics-especially Facebook profiles inclined to Communist Party of India (Marxist).