Alappuzha: A young Congress candidate for the Kerala Legislative Assembly election has won legions of admirers ever since the KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran announced the list on Sunday evening.

“Congress’s youngest candidate in the state,” he said while naming Aritha, 26, as the United Democratic Front candidate for the Kayamkulam seat.

Soon, media thronged her house Ajish Nivas at Govindamuttam in Kayamkulam’s Puthuppally locality. She came across as a bright and upright person in her media interactions. But her brief political carer and personal record too are inspiring to youth in Kerala.

Though young, she has been shouldering the responsibility of looking after her family ever since her father Tulasidharan was diagnosed with a heart ailment a few years ago.

For Aritha, each day begins at the cowshed on her residential plot. Up at 4am, Aritha distributes milk to 15 houses and the Govindamuttam Milk Producers’ Cooperative Society at Govindamuttam by 6am.

Aritha was just 21 when she contested to the Alappuzha District Panchayat from Krishnapuram in 2015, and the young woman tasted victory in her first election itself.

In the 2020 civic polls she had filed a nomination from the Punnapra division, but was ordered to withdraw from the fray by the party leadership. However, she couldn’t withdraw her nomination on time, still she ended up garnering around 1,000 votes.

Aritha had earlier held official positions in the Kerala Students' Union and Youth Congress.

Abhijith, the youngest

The real ‘baby’ in the Congress’s list of candidates is K M Abhijith, who will seek the mandate from Kozhikode North Assembly constituency.

Aged 26 years and eight months, Abhijith, born on July 19, 1994, is 1.5 months younger to Aritha. The date of birth of Aritha is May 30, 1994.

Abhijith has been the KSU’s state president since 2017.