Arya Rajendran is a 21-year-old student. She successfully contested the recent civic polls in Kerala for her party Communist Party of India (Marxist). Arya won from the Mudavanmugal ward of the city corporation, bagging 2,872 votes, 549 more than the rival Congress candidate. CPI (M) has officially proposed her name as the next Mayor of state capital Thiruvananthapuram. Arya will be the youngest Mayor in the state. Arya, a BSc Maths second year student at the All Saints college. Her father K Rajendran is an electrician and mother Sreelatha is a LIC agent. She also has a brother. Both her parents are CPI(M) activists and she was associated with the party from a very young age. This was also the first time Ms Rajendran could cast her vote in the local body elections due to her age. She told NDTV, “Even though I was not entitled to vote in the last local body elections, I still was actively campaigning for the party candidate. That experience and exposure helped me this time as well. I have been actively involved with the party during the election campaign in the past.”

Balasangam is the children's wing of CPI(M) and Students Federation of India and is the party's students’ wing. She said, “From the time I remember my childhood, I was going to Balasangham. May be from around the age of 5. I am now the State President for Balasangam. I am also the Students Federation of India state committee member. My parents are branch committee members of CPI(M). And we firmly believe in what the party stands for.” My family fully supported me and are extremely happy. I will not stop my studies. I will continue it. I also want to pursue my higher studies in Public Administration.” As a Mayor, her top priority would be waste management in the capital city, which has been a challenging task. "Our city is beautiful. To keep it like this, it should be free of waste. A thorough awareness is needed among people not to dump waste on the waysides.”

Tags

• Arya
• Rajendran
• Mayor
• Youngest
• Thiruvananthapur

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