Priya Rajan to be Chennai’s first Dalit woman mayor

The DMK has nominated Priya Rajan,a 28-year-old MCom graduate as their candidate for the mayor’s post in Chennai Corporation. Rajan is set to become the first Dalit woman to hold the position. Indirect elections for the post of mayor and chairpersons for the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) will be held on Friday. However, with the DMK having as many as 153 councillors of a total of 200 wards, Priya's election is a foregone conclusion.Besides the 153 councillors, the DMK's allies have another 25 councillors in the GCC.

Priya was elected councillor from ward number 74 in Thiru.Vi.Ka. after her party registered a landslide victory in the recently concluded Tamil Nadu urban local body elections. Priya will be the third woman to become Mayor of Chennai after Tara Cherian and Kamakshi Jayaraman. The post is considered very significant in the history of Tamil Nadu politics. Chief Minister M K Stalin and Health Minister Ma Subramanian had held the position in the past.

The DMK on Thursday nominated candidates for the posts of mayors and deputy mayors of municipal corporations, and chairperson and vice-chairperson of municipalities and town panchayats. The party has nominated Mahesh Kumar, who was elected as the councillor from ward 169 from Perungudi zone, for the deputy mayor’s post.For the mayor’s post in the newly formed Tambaram corporation, Vasanthakumari Kannan, a BTech graduate in chemical engineering, has been nominated. In Madurai and Coimbatore corporations, Indhirani and Kalpana have been nominated. In Hosur, former MLA SA Sathya has been nominated for the top post. The DMK has nominated its party candidates for 20 of them and had allocated the mayor’s post of Kumbakonam municipal corporation to its ally, Congress. Of the total 20 mayor posts, the party has allotted 11 women and nine men.