Meet 21-yr-old Arya Rajendran, who is set to become one of India’s youngest mayors

CPI(M) district secretary on Sunday confirmed that 21-year-old Arya Rajendran is set to be Thiruvananthapuram’s new mayor.

“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

A second-year B.Sc Maths student and daughter of CPI(M) activists, she became associated with the party when she joined the children’s collective Balasangam in Class 5.

It was also the first time she could cast her vote in the local body election due to her age. Rajendran is a state committee member of the Students Federation of India (SFI) and also the state president of Balasangam, the children’s wing of the Left party.

Senior party leader Jameela Sreedharan and two others were also in the running, but the party chose a young leader over them. Arya, who won from Mudavanmugal ward, said, “I’ll figure out a way to continue my studies.”