Who is Kerala born Nithya Raman? Indian-American Leading Los Angeles Mayor Why She Is Compared to Zohran Mamdani | Today’s news

Indian-American Nithya Raman, the front-runner in the Los Angeles mayoral race, is being compared to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on several grounds. She is running against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass.

Nithya Raman has emerged as the most prominent left-leaning challenger to incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in the Nov. 3 mayoral race. If elected in the November 3 polls, Raman will be the first Indian-American mayor of Los Angeles.

A poll conducted between September 15 and 20 found that 39 percent of voters favored Raman for the post of Los Angeles mayor, compared to 28 percent for Bass, according to PTI. While almost one third of polled voters were undecided.

Who is Nithya Raman?

A member of the Democratic Socialist Movement, Raman served as a member of the city council for six years. Now she is fighting to become the next mayor of Los Angeles, the second largest city in the US.

Raman, who endorsed Bassa for re-election before deciding to enter the fray, accused her of being a “missing in action” mayor due to her absence when the city battled a massive fire in January last year.

Nithy’s Early Life: Raman was born in Kerala on July 28, 1981 and moved to Louisiana when she was six. She grew up in the suburbs of Boston.

Nithya lives in Silver Lake with her husband Vali Chandrasekaran and young twins Karna and Kaveri. In 2013, she moved to Los Angeles with her husband, a successful television writer and producer, and the couple had twins, now 10.

Nithya Raman’s Education: She graduated from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in political theory and then received a master’s degree in urban planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Nithya’s Career: She is a member of the Los Angeles City Council representing District 4. She ran for City Council in 2020 and won a historic victory, becoming the first Asian-American woman and the first South Asian ever to serve on the City Council.

In March 2024, according to her profile, she was decisively elected to a second term official site.

“Since taking office, Councilmember Raman has prioritized providing compassionate and effective services to people experiencing homelessness, building more affordable housing and moving with greater urgency to meet our city’s climate goals,” the release said.

Councilman Raman serves as Chair of the Civil Rights, Immigration, Social Services and Neighborhoods Committee, Vice Chair of the Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee, and a member of the Homelessness and Health Committee, the Public Safety Committee, and the Charter Review Ad Hoc Committee.

Why is Nithya Raman being compared to Zohran Madani

According to reports, Raman, a democratic socialist, has been compared to New York’s Zohran Mamdani, although she insists her political profile is different.

The New York Times said comparisons to the mayor of New York were inevitable. In addition to being members of the DSA, both millennials are foreign-born to South Asian parents, and their campaigns make smart use of social media.

But political pundits in Los Angeles told the NYT that Raman’s savvy and charisma pale next to Mamdani’s, a preternaturally skilled politician.

If Raman wins, pundits have been quoted as saying that it will not be because he is from the west coast of Mamdani. It will be because he is not Bass.

Raman argued that Los Angeles is leaderless, with a broken government that struggles to even fix street lights, fill potholes, and respond to 911 calls in a timely manner.

According to the report, Raman’s proposed policy measures range from more audits of homelessness programs to performance improvement measures for city department heads. She promised to create a tenant protection office and develop a long-term plan to improve infrastructure.

Her proposals are less catchy and more incremental than Mamdani’s, but her supporters note that Los Angeles mayors have less unilateral power than New York mayors, the NYT reported.

They argued that the public’s desire for change was evident in its rise despite significant opposition from the establishment, including a powerful police union and major business interests.

The prospect of a Raman victory is especially exciting for the small but polarizing Democratic Socialist movement, whose members have backed both her and Mamdani as they seek to turn America’s big cities into laboratories for progressive politics, the NYT reported.