Arya Rajendran

Arya Rajendran S. (born 12 January 1999) is an Indian politician who currently serves as the mayor of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation.^[3][4][5][6] She was elected from Mudavanmugal ward, belonging to Nemom Assembly Constituency from Communist Party of India (Marxist) at the age of 21 and was appointed as the mayor of the corporation which made her the youngest mayor in the country.^[7]

Arya Rajendran
Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram
Incumbent
Assumed office 28 December 2020
Preceded by	K Sreekumar
State President Balasangam, Kerala
Personal details
Born	12 January 1999 (1999-01-12) (age 26) Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
Political party	Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Spouse	K. M. Sachin Dev ​ (m. 2022)​ [1][2]
Parents	Rajendran Sreelatha
Education	All Saints College, Thiruvananthapuram

Personal life and education

Arya Rajendran is the daughter of Rajendran, an electrician, and Sreelatha, an LIC agent.^[8][9] She did her schooling from Carmel Girls HSS Thiruvananthapuram and attended BSc Mathematics from All Saints College Thiruvananthapuram.^[10] She is married to K. M. Sachin Dev, who is the member of Kerala Legislative Assembly from Balussery constituency.^[11]

Politics

Arya Rajendran was the state president of Bala Sangham, the Kerala's largest children's organisation.^[9][12] She was also a state committee member of Students' Federation of India^[8][13][14] and also serves as CPI(M)'s area committee member at Chala. In 2024, Arya Rajendran was elected to the CPIM Thiruvananthapuram District Committee ^{[15] [3]}

She was the candidate of Communist Party of India (Marxist) from Mudavanmugal ward in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, the youngest candidate in 2020 civic body elections at the district.^[10][16][17] She defeated the UDF candidate Sreekala by 2872 votes.^[8]

Arya broke the record of Sabitha Beegum who became Kollam Mayor at 23^[18] and Devendra Fadnavis by being the youngest mayor in India.^[19][20] Fadnavis became the mayor of Nagpur Municipal Corporation at the age of 27.^[21][22]

Controversies

On 29 April 2024, She and her husband, K. M. Sachin Dev, blocked a Kerala State Road Transport Corporation Super Fast bus amidst service and having passengers onboard, with her private car and allegedly abused the bus driver. Arya accused the bus driver to have shown her obscene hand signs whilst driving. She was booked by the Cantonment police under non-bailable provisions as per the directions of the Thiruvananthapuram Judicial First Class Magistrate Court.^{[23][24][25][26][27][28][29]}