CHENNAI: Nithya V Raman, 44, who is in a close race with incumbent Mayor Karen Bass to become the first Indian-American to lead Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the United States, once walked the corridors of Chennai's government departments, picking up the cause of those evicted from their homes and fixing the city’s garbage problems and broken toilets.
While political career in Los Angeles began with community activism, her engagement with urban issues and the relationship between citizens and local governments brought her to India. In 2010, she co-founded Transparent Chennai, an initiative focused on urban poverty and challenges faced by the marginalised.
Nithya comes from a Malayali family with roots in Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur. Her father R Venkatraman worked with Keltron before relocating to the United States, and her mother Sudha worked with Indian Overseas Bank.
Nithya moved to the US with her family when she was six.
She studied political science at Harvard University and completed a master's degree in urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She subsequently came to Chennai and founded the civic research initiative Transparent Chennai, under the Centre for Development Finance at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR).
The initiative sought to make information about the city's civic infrastructure accessible to residents and use it to hold public authorities accountable.
In 2011, nearly 100 volunteers were mobilised to survey ward 176, covering parts of Adyar and Besant Nagar. They mapped garbage accumulation, public toilets and pedestrian infrastructure. Transparent Chennai also worked in Kalyanapuram, a settlement along the Cooum, where residents faced irregular garbage collection and inadequate sanitation. The team documented overflowing garbage, poorly maintained toilets and road deficiencies. Following meetings involving residents and the local councillor, improvements were made to toilet facilities, drainage and roads.
In 2015, she was associated as an adviser with the Transparent Cities Network, which published Eviction Mapping: Uncovering Chennai's Invisible Injustice. The study documented 63 evictions between 2005 and 2015, affecting an estimated 30,293 families, and highlighted the absence of a comprehensive official record of displacement.
She eventually moved to Los Angeles in 2013 and continued her community work among the homeless. She worked with the city's administrative officer, gaining experience in municipal administration and public spending.
Nithya entered electoral politics in 2020, contesting the Los Angeles City Council election. She became the first South Asian and the first Asian-American woman elected to the council and won a second term in 2024.
Raman has often been compared to New York City politicians Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.