A Keralite woman has won the City Council election in Los Angeles, USA. Nithya V Raman (35), Thiruvananthapuram native and a resident of Boston, has won from District 4 City Council.
Nithya won after defeating David Ryu, who was Council representative for 17 years. Nithya won after securing 56 percent of the total votes polled in the 15-member council. Nithya, who is an urban planner and activist, had the backing of Democratic-Socialists and left activists in Los Angeles.
Nithya is the granddaughter of Kottakkakam native K Ramayyar, a retired postmaster and daughter of R Venkitaraman, who worked in Keltron.
Venkitaraman went to the USA to pursue his higher studies and later settled down in Boston. He is now the CEO of a company called Vertex. Nithya’s mother Sudha, is a Thrissur native and a former employee of Indian Overseas Bank. Nithya grew up in Kerala until the age of 6.
Nithya did her graduation in Urban Planning from Harvard University and her Masters from Boston MIT. She has worked in Chennai and Dhaka in relation to slum eradication and house construction in rural areas.
She married Hollywood scriptwriter Vali Chandrasekaran. Her brother Akash V Raman is an IT Engineer in the USA.
