Arya Rajendran takes oath as Thiruvananthapuram mayor

Arya Rajendran, the 21-year-old CPI(M) candidate has assumed charge as the mayor of Thiruvananthapuram corporation, becoming India's youngest mayor. CPI leader and Pattom counsellor PK Raju will be the Deputy Mayor in the Corporation. Earliar, the election was naccessiated after the NDA and UDF decided to field candidates for the post, an election was necessary to choose the mayor.The NDA contested Simi Jyothish and UDF was represented by Mary Pushpam in the bid to be the next mayor.

In the open voting, Arya Rajendran bagged 54 votes including support of 3 independents. BJP candidate secured 35 votes, followed by INC candidate who got 9 votes. Arya had won from the Mudavanmughal ward of the city corporation, bagging 2,872 votes, 549 more than the rival Congress candidate. An activist of the Students Federation of India (SFI), she is also the state president of Balasangam, the children's wing of the Left party. PI(M) lead Left Democratic Front had won the local body elections to the Corporation by a comfortable majority of 51 seats. However, the BJP-led NDA gave a tough fight to the Left coalition by bagging 35 seats, followed by the Congress UDF at 10 seats.