Know your Leader Profile: Arvind Kejriwal- Aam Aadmi Party

Know your Leader Profile- Arvind Kejriwal- Aam Aadmi Party Date and place of birth- August 16, 1968, Hisar , Haryana Family history- Arvind Kejriwal belongs to the Baniya caste. His father, Gobind Ram Kejriwal is an electrical engineer from Mesra's Birla Institute of Technology. His mother's name is Gita Devi. Kejriwal has two younger siblings- a brother and a sister. He is married to Sunita, his bacthmate from his civil service training days. Kejriwal joined IIT, Kharagpur in 1985 for a degree in mechanical engineering. After graduating he joined the Tata Steel in Jamshedpur but took a sabbatical to study for the civil services entrance. He joined the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) in 1995 after clearing the civil entrance in first shot. In 2000 he was granted two years leave to pursue higher eduction but on one condition, that on resuming his work, he would not resign for at least three years. In 2003 he rejoined the IRS and worked for 18 months. At the same time he continued his social work and activism. Political career- Before taking a leap in the mainstream politics, Kejriwal shared the stage with social activist Anna Hazare and fasted for the passing of the Jan Lokpal Bill. In 2012, he moved away from Anna Hazare and the Fight Against Corruption movement to launch the 'Aam Aadmi Party'. While the party formation drew him a lot of flak, he said that to fight corruption, one had to enter mainstream politics. The name 'Aam Aadmi Party' struck a chord with the common man, and in the 2013 Delhi Assembly elections, AAP was the second largest party in Delhi. Arvind Kejriwal contested the elections from New Delhi constituency and defeated the then Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit by a huge margin. Arvind Kejriwal always remained the 'poster boy' of the AAP and it was no surprise when the party named him as the Chief Ministerial candidate for Delhi. After the BJP failed to win majority votes in the Assembly elections in Delhi, AAP said that it would form a minority government in Delhi, with Congress providing conditional support to the party. Performance as Delhi CM- Arvind Kejriwal was sworn in as the Delhi CM on December 28, 2013 and he became the youngest CM of Delhi. His political career till date has been a roller coaster ride as the Delhi CM has been praised for connecting with the common man but also been criticised for his uncoventional ways of functioning. While he maintained to keep some of his promises to the aam janta like slashing electricity bills and providing 700 litres of free water supply in Delhi, some have criticised him for staging dharnas and protests unlike of any chief minister. He ditched the VIP culture also known as the 'Lal Batti' culture saying that he was a aam aadmi and didn't need any special means of travel ans security. OneIndia News

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