Rajiv Rishyakaran was born on 12 October 1981, at Hospital Universiti, Kuala Lumpur. Rajiv is the eldest of five brothers. His father, Rishyakaran Karthigasu is a retired Ministry of Health officer whilst his mother, Rajini Chandrapal retired from teaching to be a homemaker. Rajiv was born and bred in the Klang Valley, apart from a brief relocation to Ipoh, Perak where his father was based as a civil servant. The family later moved to Subang Jaya, Selangor where Rajiv finished secondary school. Rajiv attended Kolej Universiti Teknologi Tun Hussein Onn, Johor, graduating in 2003 with a degree in Electrical Engineering specializing in Instrumentation & Automation. Upon graduation, Rajiv worked in Kuala Lumpur as a project engineer with Prestige Engineering Sdn. Bhd. In 2013, Rajiv married Ana, who he first met in 2010 as a fellow delegate at the Young Progressives of South East Asia 2010 Climate Change conference in the Philippines. They got married in 2013, just before the elections. It has been reported that the couple found out that Rajiv will be fielded as one of DAP's candidates just 3 days before the Nomination day, the latter being the same day as their wedding dinner reception in the Philippines. Rajiv left for the Philippines immediately after filing his candidacy and arrived fashionably late at the reception. The newly married couple came back to Malaysia the next day to campaign.
Political career
Early involvement
Rajiv's involvement in politics began when friend and fellow church member, Hannah Yeoh Tseow Suan was fielded to run for the state seat of Subang Jaya in 2008.
Rajiv joined the Democratic Action Party in 2008 and, along with Hannah Yeoh and Edward Ling, was one of the founding members of DAP's USJ branch. In 2009, Rajiv was appointed DAP Youth Selangor organizing secretary. He was elected DAP Youth Selangor State Secretary in 2012 and appointed to the DAP Youth National Executive Committee.
In 2009, Rajiv was appointed Majlis Perbandaran Subang Jaya Councillor, where he stayed until the 2013 elections. While in MPSJ, he was responsible for Zone 3 until June 2012 when he was reassigned to Zone 3 until May 2013. Throughout his tenure at MPSJ, he simultaneously served as Hannah Yeoh's Special Assistant. The Subang Jaya Urban Forest and the Subang Jaya Voluntary Patrol Unit, among others, were attributed to the role he played within the council and as Yeoh's assistant.
Three days before the Nomination day for the 2013 General Elections, Rajiv was picked to contest for the state seat of Bukit Gasing, taking over who ran for the Parliamentary seat of Batu Kawan, Penang. Rajiv listed several concerns as part of his GE13 campaign, pledging to be corruption-free and to champion:
Rajiv received almost 78% of the total votes, giving him a landslide victory over Gerakan's Juan Sei Chang and Independent candidates Mak Khuin Weng and . In the 2018 General Elections, Rajiv contested and managed to won for the second-term reelection for his Bukit Gasing state seat again. In July 2019, he submitted a motion to the Selangor State Assembly which aimed to prohibit party hopping among elected representatives in the State. This came after the downfall of the Pakatan Harapan Government, after Bersatu and majority of its members left the coalition to form Perikatan Nasional with UMNO.
After Pakatan Harapan's unprecedented triumph over Barisan Nasional in 2018, Yeo Bee Yin was appointed as the Minister for Energy, Science and Technology, Environment, and Climate Change. Yeo subsequently appointed Rajiv as her Special Functions Officer, where he not only assisted in key ministerial processes but was also appointed into the board of the Sustainable Energy Development Authority, where he advocated for the widespread use of solar energy in the country.
Focus areas
Rajiv is DAP Socialist Youth's National Assistant Secretary of Publicity and was co-opted as DAP Selangor state committee member in 2013 and 2015. In the Selangor state assembly, Rajiv is a member of the Select Committees on Local Government and Water Resources Management. Rajiv's areas of interest are town planning, affordable housing and improving public transportation. Along with other state assembly representatives, he consistently called for a holistic “traffic masterplan” and believes that funds allocated for transportation will be better spent on extending the reach & connectivity of public transportation rather than building more highways. He is vocal about the need to replace ageing infrastructure.
