Meet 21-year-old Arya Rajendran, the youngest Mayor of India
Twenty-one-year-old Arya Rajendran will be the next Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, making her the youngest ever to occupy the post in the country. The ruling CPI(M) on Sunday officially declared Rajendran will be the party-led Left Democratic Front's mayoral candidate in the election to the post to be held on Monday. She is a second-year BSc. Math student of the All Saints College, Kerala.
The party's statement
"The party district committee has decided to field S Arya Rajendran as the Mayor candidate on behalf of the LDF and Suresh Kumar as the District panchayat president of Thiruvananthapuram," it said in a statement.
As a Mayor, top priority would be waste management
Rajendran is a state committee member of the Students Federation of India and the state president of Balasangam (children's wing of the Left party). She had said as a Mayor, her top priority would be waste management in the city. "Besides a scientific waste management system, a thorough awareness is needed among people not to dump waste in waysides," Rajendran had said earlier.
It was the first time she could cast her vote
On her electoral debut, Rajendran won from the Mudavanmugal ward, defeating her nearest Congress rival by a margin of 549 votes. It was also the first time she could cast her vote in the local body election due to her age.
Dream is to take politics and studies forward together
The CPI(M) on Twitter said she will be the youngest Mayor of a major city in the world. She is the daughter of CPI(M) activist K Rajendran, an electrician by profession, and Sreelatha, an LIC agent. "I am ready to shoulder any responsibility entrusted with me by my party. My dream is to take forward politics and my studies together," she had said.
Other young leaders in the country over the years
Reportedly, the youngest Mayor in the country until now was Sabitha Begum who headed the Kollam Corporation at the age of 23. In 2006, the then DMK regime in Tamil Nadu had made 24-year-old Rekha Priyadharshini the Mayor of Salem. Senior BJP leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had become the Mayor of Nagpur Municipal Corporation at the age of 27.
