India-born Nithya Raman has won the Los Angeles mayoral election, defeating incumbent Karen Bass. She has become the first Indian-American and first South Asian elected to lead the California city. Raman, who was backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, secured 52.70% of the ballots counted against Bass’ 47.30%.
Raman’s connection to India goes well beyond her family roots. Her father, Venkitaraman, reportedly worked with Keltron, while her mother, Sudha Kechery, worked with Indian Overseas Bank. She also worked closely with residents of Delhi’s informal settlements who faced the threat of eviction ahead of the Commonwealth Games. The initiative used data and mapping to document civic infrastructure and issues affecting low-income communities. Its work included mapping public toilets and bus routes and examining access to basic services in informal settlements. There, she became involved in the city’s homelessness crisis and co-founded the SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition. Raman’s mayoral campaign focused on housing affordability, homelessness, and the delivery of municipal services. It’s fair to say that for Raman, the journey from an Indian childhood and years of civic work in Delhi and Chennai to leading Los Angeles marks a political career shaped by urban governance on two continents.
She was born in Thrissur, Kerala, in 1981 and spent part of her early childhood in Thiruvananthapuram before moving to the United States with her family at the age of six. After studying at Harvard University in 2003, Raman came to Delhi and worked with organisations representing slum dwellers. Her work then took her to South India, where she founded Transparent Chennai in 2010. In 2013, Raman completed a master’s degree in urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and moved to Los Angeles in 2013.
