CM Arvindra kejariwal

[Anup Tiwari]

Call it beginner’s luck or outcome of
sheer hard work, Arvind Kejriwal has
always aced his biggest challenges
in his first attempt.
From clearing the IIT entrance
examination and cracking the UPSC
to becoming Delhi’s 7th chief
minister, his successes have been at
the first shot.
And after Tuesday’s thumping
victory, he has proved there’s always
a second chance for those who
deserve it.
Born on August 16, 1968, at Sivani in
Haryana, about 150 km from Delhi,
Kejriwal was the first of the three
children of Gobind Ram Kejriwal and
Gita Devi.
Kejriwal cleared the IIT entrance
exam in his first attempt just after
school in 1985 and graduated as a
mechanical engineer from IIT
Kharagpur.

He landed a job with TISCO,
Jamshedpur immediately after
college in 1989, while preparing for
the civil services alongside.
After working there for three years,
Kejriwal resigned in 1992. Opting for
the Indian Revenue Service (IRS)
instead, he cracked the civil services
examination (UPSC) the same year in
his first attempt.
Kejriwal met his wife Sunita, a fellow
IRS officer, during their training in
Nagpur. They married in 1994.

 

[Anup Tiwari]

Once training finished, he came to
Delhi on his first posting in 1995 as
assistant commissioner of Income
Tax.
Being in government service, Kejriwal
was active in taking up social causes.
Engaged with ‘Parivartan’, an
activism organisation, he worked for
implementation of Right to
Information Act at grass-roots level.
His efforts in the enactment of the
RTI Act to empower the poorest
citizens of India won him the Ramon
Magsaysay Award for Emergent
Leadership in 2006.
A joint commissioner in the income
tax department then, Kejriwal quit
his job the same year and became a
full-time activist. He formed an NGO
called Public Cause Research
Foundation with his award money as
the corpus fund.

 

[Anup Tiwari]

He said the RTI brought a
revolutionary change in public
discourse but it soon became clear
it could only help dig out
information but not punish the
guilty. That’s how the India Against
Corruption (IAC) movement began.
The Magsaysay award had made him
a known face, but he truly came into
the limelight during the IAC, also
known as the Jan Lokpal agitation.
With Anna Hazare as its face and his
public fasts, the IAC kept the UPA
government on tenterhooks through
2011 and half of 2012, also
prompting ordinary citizens to hit
the streets demanding a strong
Janlokpal.

 

[Anup Tiwari]

While they were feeling "betrayed"
by the government when it rejected
their draft of the jan lokpal, the
Congress and leaders of other
political parties challenged them to
join politics, win elections and come
to Parliament if they wanted to
“fight the system from within” and
root out corruption.
Kejriwal decided to take a plunge
into politics and formed the Aam
Aadmi Party on November 26 2012,
after a formal split of Team Anna.
Kejriwal, Anna Hazare and Prashant
Bhushan talk at the Ramlila Maidan
during the IAC movement. (HT
Photo)
Many laughed at this move and
dismissed Kejriwal as a political
greenhorn, but he and his party
started poll preparation way ahead
in April.
The outcome was stunning.

 

[Anup Tiwari]

Just one year into politics, Kejriwal
made three-time Delhi CM Sheila
Dikshit bite the dust during the
2013 polls. The Aam Aadmi Party
bagged 28 seats in the 70-member
assembly and the party chief
sweeped Dikshit out not just from
office but also her constituency.
Winning by a massive margin of
25,864 votes, Kejriwal became the
7th chief minister of Delhi from
December 28, 2013, to February 14,
2014.
But, his brief stint was marred by
several controversies. He finally quit
office after 49 days as CM, following
the deadlock over an anti-graft
legislation.
His party hit a low when just four of
its 400-odd candidates won in the
Lok Sabha polls.
Despite the shocking defeat,
campaigned hard in Delhi and
reiterated he would not commit the
same mistakes again if he got
another chance. Banking on his anti-
corruption agenda, he also put
emphasis on providing Delhiites with
cheap ‘bijli-paani’ (electricity and
water).
And it paid off. The AAP won a
historic mandate on Tuesday,
bagging 67 of the 70 seats in Delhi

 

[Dinesh jain]

woww keen eyes....gud work bro