At 25, a software developer is now Haryana’s youngest councillor

Twenty-five-year-old Aashya Kumar, a software developer with a multinational company (MNC) in Gurugram, is now the youngest councillor of Haryana, having won from the Karnal municipal corporation.

A native of Karnal and daughter of a former two-time councillor Vir Vikram Kumar, she was declared victorious as an independent candidate in the results announced on Wednesday.

She defeated BJP’s Payal Arora, also the daughter of a former councillor, by a thin margin of 320 votes in ward number 10, where local BJP MLA Jagmohan Anand resides.

Her elder brother Aakrit Kumar said that Aashya pursued B.Tech and M.Tech from BITS Pilani after which she opted for a job as a software developer with a US-based MNC at Gurugram.

Vir Vikram was nominated a councillor in 2015 and was elected as a BJP nominee in the civic elections that followed in 2018.

After being denied a BJP ticket in a woman-reserved ward this time, Aashya decided to contest as an independent and the family engaged in over a two-week long campaigning.

Though her father was suspended for anti-party activities, that did not stop her close aides from supporting Aashya to ensure her victory against the BJP in a ward constituting mostly high-end posh areas.

We told voters about the development works carried out by my father, Aashya said.

“We went door-to-door and spoke about the development works carried out by my father. We received a good response as they all knew my father’s works,” she added.

On her priorities, she said that as father has already improved the drainage facilities in the area, she will now focus on rectifying the sewage problem.

“The pending beautification works of parks will also be carried out. I will try to resume the works that were stuck due to the elections or other reasons,” she said.