Los Angeles: Thiruvananthapuram-born Nithya Raman (45) has been elected the new Mayor of Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the US by population. A new star on the US political scene, Nithya won by securing 52 per cent of the votes, representing the Democratic Socialists of America party, defeating the incumbent, Karen Bass, of the Democratic Party.

Bass, the first Los Angeles Mayor to be defeated in an election in two decades, greeted Nithya on her election victory.

Nithya is a wonder woman in the land of Hollywood, a firebrand young politician who gets involved in the problems faced by the most common people and points out defects in the administrative machinery.

Born in Keralam as the daughter of Keltron official R Venkataraman and Indian Overseas Bank official Sudha, Nithya reached Burlington, Massachusetts, in the US at the age of six along with her family. While earning her degree in Social Studies from Harvard University, Nithya met and later married her classmate, Vali Chandraseskaran. The couple now has 10-year-old twins, Karna and Kaveri.

After Harvard, Nithya returned to India and worked in the slums of Delhi, where she learnt about the miserable lives of the residents. She engaged in social work in Chennai also, and soon set up a voluntary organisation to improve the lives of slum residents. Nithya has also conducted studies on the housing problems, basic infrastructure and living conditions of ordinary people in Thiruvananthapuram city.

Nithya returned to the US in 2013 and secured expertise in urban planning from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Subsequently, she became a Management Trainee at the administrative headquarters of Los Angeles city. Launching an organisation focusing on rehabilitation of homeless people, Nithya gradually ventured into politics. She became a member of the City Council in 2020 and was reelected in 2024.

Having received the support of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) party, Nithya also had the backing of labour unions. In the Mayoral election, she contested with DSA’s support, despite differences with the party on certain issues.

Interestingly, Nithya has family connections with Hollywood. Her husband, Vali Chandrasekar, is a TV scriptwriter and producer. A celebrity with Tamil roots, Vali has been associated with shows such as ’30 Rock’, ‘Modern Family’, ‘My Name is Earl’ and ‘The Four Seasons’. Top TV stars such as Tina Fey had publicly announced their support for Nithya when she announced her candidature for the Mayoral election.

Incidentally, Nithya has relatives in Thiruvananthapuram, and they said that her parents will arrive in the city on November 27.

Meanwhile, final results of the midterm elections to the US Congress and Senate are yet to be announced, and could take weeks, as postal votes also are to be counted. As per the latest position, the Democratic Party has confirmed its majority in both houses, winning 245 seats in the 435-member Congress and 54 in the 100-member Senate.