Country’s youngest Mayor takes charge in Thiruvananthapuram

Arya Rajendran of CPI(M) secures 54 votes in the polls, P.K. Raju becomes Deputy Mayor with 55 votes

Twenty-one-year-old Arya Rajendran of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] was sworn in as the Mayor of the Thiruvananthapuram city Corporation, after she secured 54 votes in the 100-member council in the election held on Monday morning. She has become the youngest Mayor till date in the country. P.K. Raju of the Communist Party of India (CPI) was sworn in as the Deputy Mayor.

Ms. Rajendran as well as Mr. Raju got the support of three Independent councillors, in addition to the 52 seats of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) . However, in the voting for the Mayor post, the vote of the LDF’s councillor from Kachani was declared invalid as she failed to note down her name and affix her signature on the ballot paper.

BJP candidate

The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, which has 34 seats and the support of an Independent councillor, fielded Simi Jyothish, the former chairperson of the Corporation’s tax appeal standing committee, for the Mayor post. The United Democratic Front, which has 10 seats, fielded councillor Mary Pushpam. The BJP candidate secured 35 votes, while the UDF candidate got nine votes, as the councillor from Mulloor ward, under COVID-19 observation, was absent.

As soon as the election process was over, District Collector Navjot Khosa administered the oath to the new Mayor.

Ms. Rajendran walked into the podium accompanied by spirited sloganeering from CPI(M) members who had gathered in large numbers on the occasion. Crackers went off outside the Corporation office as the Collector handed over the Mayor’s gown to her.

She was later accompanied to the Mayor’s chamber by former Mayors K. Chandrika, V.K. Prasanth, MLA, and K. Sreekumar.

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55 votes

In the election to the Deputy Mayor post held in the afternoon, Mr. Raju secured 55 of the total of 99 votes polled. The BJP had fielded Palkulangara ward councillor P. Ashokumar, who secured 34 votes. The vote cast by the BJP’s councillor from the Chempazhanthy ward was declared invalid as he had signed instead of marking his vote. UDF candidate S. Sureshkumar of the Akkulam ward got nine votes.

Call for united effort

Addressing the first council meeting after the elections, Mayor Arya Rajendran said that all the members need to work together to ensure that Thiruvananthapuram was turned into a model Corporation.

“For the Corporation to become a model, we should all work towards turning our individual wards into model wards. We need to work united with everyone, beyond all barriers of politics, religion and caste,” she said.

The leaders of various fronts congratulated the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor.

Later, the LDF councillors led by the Mayor, and accompanied by CPI(M) and Students Federation of India activists marched to the martyr’s column and paid floral tributes.