Chennai to get its youngest and first Dalit woman as mayor; meet R Priya

Chennai is set to have its youngest and first ever Dalit woman as mayor after the ruling party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) named R Priya (28) for the post on Thursday.

Indirect elections for the post of mayor and chairpersons for the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) will be held on Friday (March 4). However, with the DMK having as many as 153 councillors of a total of 200 wards, Priya’s election is a foregone conclusion.

Besides the 153 councillors, the DMK’s allies have another 25 councillors in the GCC.

Priya will be the third woman to become Mayor of Chennai after Tara Cherian and Kamakshi Jayaraman. The granddaughter of former DMK MLA Chengai Sivam, she hails from a family with a strong political background. Her father, R Rajan, is the area co-secretary for the DMK, according to the News Minute. The soon-to-be Chennai mayor has an MCom degree.

Priya was elected councillor from ward number 74 after her party registered a landslide victory in the recently concluded Tamil Nadu urban local body elections.

The DMK bagged all the 21 municipal corporations, with 946 wards in corporations, 2,360 in municipalities and as many as 4,388 in town panchayats.

(With inputs from bureau)