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Sweet revenge for youngest chief
The Morning Standard
|December 27, 2025
At 21, Diya claims Pala top post in Pala municipality denied to her father two years ago
TWO years ago, when Binu Pulikkakandam was humiliated by his party CPM and the LDF by denying him the promised Pala municipal chairperson's post, his daughter Diya Binu Pulikkakandam was doing her bachelor's course in economics at the Madras Christian College in Chennai. While she may not have fully grasped the political intricacies behind the move, bowing down to the pressure tactics of the Jose K Mani-led Kerala Congress (M), her father's exclusion wounded her.
On Friday, Diya, having taken a break from her academic pursuits, was sworn in as the chairperson of the same Pala municipality. Her victory, achieved by defeating both the KC (M) and the LDF, represents a form of "poetic justice", as she herself put it. At the age of 21, a first-time member of Pala municipality, Diya has fulfilled a long-held dream for her father, who has been a councillor for the past two decades.
This story is from the December 27, 2025 edition of The Morning Standard.
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