The mayoral election in Los Angeles is set to take place on June 2, and Indian-origin candidate Nithya Raman is emerging as a strong challenger to current mayor Karen Bass. Reports suggest that Nithya Raman has around a 60% chance of winning. Born in 1981 to a Tamil family with roots in Kerala, she moved to the United States at the age of six. She studied political theory at Harvard University and urban planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For a period, she returned to Chennai and started a research organization focused on sanitation and public health. After moving to Los Angeles in 2013, she founded SELAH, an organization that supports homeless people, and also worked with Time’s Up Entertainment, linked to the Me Too movement. In 2020, Nithya Raman made history by becoming the first South Asian woman elected to the Los Angeles City Council, defeating a well-known candidate supported by leaders like Hillary Clinton. She filed her nomination for the mayoral race at the last minute on February 7. Her candidacy has drawn comparisons to Zohran Mamdani, who recently achieved a major victory in New York politics. Initially, Nithya had expressed support for Karen Bass, but her decision to run against her has led to criticism from some groups, who called her a “political traitor.” Responding to this, Nithya said the election is not about personal relationships, but about solving the city’s problems and shaping its future.
