21-year-old becomes India's youngest Mayor

Twenty-one-year-old Arya Rajendran became the next Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram on Monday after tasting victory in the recent civic polls in Kerala. The Thiruvananthapuram district secretariat of the ruling CPI(M) had recommended Arya's name for the post of mayor. Arya, now a second-year graduation student of a city college, became the youngest-ever Mayor in India. Arya had walked into the prestigious council hall of the capital city's Municipal Corporation building six days ago to take oath as a Councillor of the ruling Marxist party. She had won from the Mudavanmughal ward of the city corporation, bagging 2,872 votes, 549 more than the rival Congress candidate. A staunch party activist hailing from a hardcore Marxist family, she said: "I have faced the election with confidence and courage. I am ready to shoulder any responsibility entrusted with me by my party. My dream is to take forward politics and my studies together."