Arya Rajendran, the name that was bordered in the college register and in the Communist party of Kerala, has now become nationally familiar as it's going to get suffixed with a remarkable tagline - India's youngest mayor. Arya is a sophomore at All Saints' College, Trivandrum and she has been pursuing B.Sc in Mathematics and besides her degree, she studied and followed the ideology of Communism since her childhood and she was watered with Communism as all of her family members are associated with the leftist party. 

21-year-old Arya Rajendran is all set to become the Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram after the state ruling CPM had won the corporation for the second consecutive time in the recently concluded local body polls. Arya had contested and won from the Mudavamughal ward in Thiruvananthapuram and the ruling party has now decided to name her the next mayor of Kerala's largest corporation, which had become a significant breakthrough and would give a crucial push to women's participation in politics. 

After having been named as the Thiruvananthapuram Mayor, Arya Rajendran has broken the stereotype and has created a history by becoming the youngest mayor in India. She spoke to us on Saturday amid being in the rain of appreciations and becoming a trendsetter in opening the gates of politics to the younger generation. She sounded incredibly hopeful and filled with enthusiasm in taking her new and indeed responsible assignment of serving the highest office of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. 

When asked about her background, Arya said, "Our family will win the bread through incessant work and I have carried the Communist Flag when I was 12. I joined Baalasangham, which is a children's organization affiliated to the CPM, while I was studying class 5 and that's when my journey in the party started. I then become a member of the party and I have been a member of the state committee of the Students' Federation of India (SFI)- CPM's Student's wing". 

She states, "For me, the party is everything and I have done a lot for the party and students. My brother has completed engineering and he has been working in Dubai. The party had faith in me and named me as its candidate in Mudavamughal ward, which is the 47th ward in the corporation. There was a competition between the Communist, Congress, and BJP in our ward. My ward people had elected me as their representative in a margin of 549 votes and I have got 2,872 votes". 

"Congress, on one side, and BJP on the other had worked towards defeating the Communist party. The BJP had used CBI and IT departments to stop the victory of the Communist party. However, the party had emerged victorious and the victory was the result of the party's welfare schemes to the people. The people have faith in us and despite the opposition, they gave us a huge victory. With the help and support from the party, I'll carry out the responsibility of Mayor along with pursuing my degree", Arya adds as she is ready to unveil the new-age politics. 

Arya's father Rajendran is an electrician while her mother Sri Latha is a LIC agent and her brother works in Dubai. Her family members are staunch supporters of the leftist party. Arya's family lives in a small house in Trivandrum with Rs 6000 rent, and her family had never turned against her interest and participation in politics. From Baalsangham, SFI, to Mayor, Arya has grown and watered her ideology and she has said that Kerala's Health Minister KK Shailaja was her first role model for the work that she had done during the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. By citing that she is against superstitious beliefs, Arya says she is a believer in positive energy.

In the recently held local body polls, the state ruling party CPM had won 51 of its 100 wards of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. The district committee of the party had recommended Arya's name as the next mayor and according to our sources, she will be taking the office of Thiruvananthapuram Mayor on December 28. During her campaign, Arya told that she would be focusing on upgrading the lower primary school in the ward following her victory. 

Along with Arya, two women candidates - Oleena and Pushpalatha were in the mayoral race. However, these two women got defeated while Arya had won from the Mudavamughal ward in Trivandrum after she got 2,872 votes which are 549 votes more than the Congress candidate who contested against her. Kerala's local bodies are setting a trend for the nation as half of the seats in the local bodies have been reserved for women while the top posts like Mayorship would be reserved for women in the alternate terms and the outgoing administration was led by Sreekumar, it's a turn for women to run the incoming administration and Arya will be taking over the mayorship.