Arya Rajendran, the Mayor-designate of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, says health and education will be her top priorities.
"I will focus on improving health and education facilities," she told Manorama News in an interview on Saturday.
At 21, Arya is set to become the youngest mayor in the country with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) nominating her for the key post on Friday.
CPM-led Left Democratic Front retained the corporation, winning 53 of the 100 divisions in the recently held local body polls, the results of which were announced on December 16.
Arya represents Mudavanmugal division in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. She defeated Congress candidate Sreekala by 2,872 votes.
Arya is a second-year undergraduate student in Mathematics at the All Saints College in Thiruvananthapuram. She hails from a family of CPM workers.
Arya has been working actively in CPM's feeder organisations for children (Balasangham) and students (Students’ Federation of India - SFI).
At present, she is the state president of the Balasangham and state committee member of the SFI.
Quite expectedly, she is a staunch supporter of student's politics because she believes youngsters can make a lot of difference in society. "Students should actively get involved in politics. They are the ones to bring in changes in the society," She said.
She says it is absurd to suggest a ban on campus politics. "It will not do any good for society," she said.
Waste management, which has been a challenging task for her predecessors, is also on Arya's priority list.
"Our city is beautiful. To keep it like this, it should be free of waste. Besides a scientific waste management system, a thorough awareness is needed among people not to dump waste on the waysides," Arya said.
She is also looking to implement programmes to reduce stress among children.
She said her teachers and friends at All Saints College supported her very much ever since she decided to contest the election.
Apart from politics, she loves reading books and watching movies. "I am a Mohanlal fan," she said.
Incidentally, versatile film actor Mohanlal's house is in Arya's constituency. He had called and congratulated Arya on Saturday.
