1. Arvind Kejriwal was the chief minister from 2013 to 2014 and from 2015 to 2024.
73 Facts About Arvind Kejriwal
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Arvind Kejriwal is the national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party since 2012.
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Arvind Kejriwal represented the New Delhi constituency in the Delhi Legislative Assembly from 2015 to 2025, and previously from 2013 to 2014.
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In 2006, Kejriwal was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for his involvement in the Parivartan movement using right to information legislation in a campaign against government corruption.
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In subsequent 2020 elections, AAP re-emerged victorious and retained power in Delhi, following which, Arvind Kejriwal was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Delhi for the third time in a row.
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Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on 21 March 2024 by the Enforcement Directorate on allegations of a liquor scam against the Aam Aadmi Party led Delhi Government.
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Arvind Kejriwal became the first ever sitting chief minister in India to be arrested.
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Arvind Kejriwal surrendered at Tihar Jail after the expiry of his bail period on 2 June 2024.
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Arvind Kejriwal's party was defeated in the 2025 Delhi Legislative Assembly election, losing his seat to Parvesh Verma by a margin of over 4,000 votes from the New Delhi Assembly constituency.
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Arvind Kejriwal was born in a Haryanvi Agrawal-Baniya family in Siwani in the Bhiwani district of Haryana, India on 16 August 1968, the first of the three children of Gobind Ram Arvind Kejriwal and Gita Devi.
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Arvind Kejriwal's father was an electrical engineer who graduated from the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra.
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Arvind Kejriwal spent most of his childhood in north Indian towns such as Sonipat, Ghaziabad and Hisar.
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Arvind Kejriwal was educated at Campus School in Hisar and at Holy Child School at Sonipat.
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Arvind Kejriwal graduated from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, majoring in mechanical engineering.
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Arvind Kejriwal joined Tata Steel in 1989 and was posted in Jamshedpur, Bihar.
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Arvind Kejriwal resigned in 1992, having taken leave of absence to study for the Civil Services Examination.
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Arvind Kejriwal spent some time in Calcutta, where he met Mother Teresa, and volunteered with The Missionaries of Charity and at the Ramakrishna Mission in North-East India and at Nehru Yuva Kendra.
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Arvind Kejriwal joined the Indian Revenue Service as an Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax in 1995, after qualifying through the Civil Services Examination.
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In 2012, Arvind Kejriwal founded the Aam Aadmi Party to fight corruption and improve governance.
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In 2015, Arvind Kejriwal returned with a decisive victory, focusing on education, healthcare, and welfare.
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Arvind Kejriwal was re-elected in 2020, further cementing his leadership in Delhi.
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Arvind Kejriwal resigned from his job in February 2006, and later that year, he was given the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, for his involvement with Parivartan.
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In December 2006, Arvind Kejriwal established the Public Cause Research Foundation in December 2006, together with Manish Sisodia and Abhinandan Sekhri.
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Arvind Kejriwal donated his Ramon Magsaysay Award prize money as a seed fund.
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Arvind Kejriwal used the RTI Act in corruption cases in many government departments including the Income Tax Department, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Public Distribution System and the Delhi Electricity Board.
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In 2010, Arvind Kejriwal protested against corruption in the Commonwealth Games.
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Arvind Kejriwal argued that the Central Vigilance Commission did not have any powers to take any action against the guilty, while CBI was incapable of launching an unbiased investigation against the ministers who controlled it.
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Arvind Kejriwal advocated appointment of public ombudsman - Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in states.
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In 2011, Arvind Kejriwal joined several other activists, including Anna Hazare and Kiran Bedi, to form the India Against Corruption group.
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Arvind Kejriwal was one of the civil society representative members of this committee.
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Arvind Kejriwal retorted that democratically elected representatives could not be allowed to function like dictators, and asked for a public debate on the contentious issues.
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Arvind Kejriwal attacked the government on this and said there was a need for a debate over police power to detain and release people at will.
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Arvind Kejriwal pointed out that the Ford Foundation had funded the Emergent Leadership category of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, and donated $397,000 to Kejriwal's NGO Kabir.
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In January 2014, Arvind Kejriwal said that he will quit from the government if Jan Lokpal Bill is not passed.
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In November 2012, they formally launched the Aam Aadmi Party; Arvind Kejriwal was elected as the party's National Convener.
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The party name reflects the phrase Aam Aadmi, or "common man", whose interests Arvind Kejriwal proposed to represent.
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AAP decided to contest the 2013 Delhi Legislative Assembly election, with Arvind Kejriwal contesting against the incumbent Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.
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Arvind Kejriwal became the fifth most-mentioned Indian politician on social media channels in the run-up to the elections.
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Arvind Kejriwal was sworn in as the second-youngest chief minister of Delhi on 28 December 2013, after Chaudhary Brahm Prakash who became chief minister at the age of 34.
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Arvind Kejriwal was in charge of Delhi's home, power, planning, finance, services and vigilance ministries.
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Arvind Kejriwal blamed the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party for stalling the anti-corruption legislation and linked it with the government's decision to register a First Information Report against industrialist Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries.
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Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party won 67 of the 70 constituencies in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections, leaving the BJP with three seats and the INC with none.
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Arvind Kejriwal took oath on 14 February 2015 as Delhi's chief minister for a second time at Ramlila Maidan.
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Arvind Kejriwal has been criticised for his controversial remarks over Biharis and "outsiders".
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Arvind Kejriwal took oath on 16 February 2020 as Delhi's chief minister for a third time at Ramlila Maidan, equalling the record of Sheila Dikshit.
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Arvind Kejriwal resigned formally on 17 September 2024 and AAP named education minister Atishi Marlena as his replacement.
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Critics accused Arvind Kejriwal of being "criminally liable" for the deaths of several patients in two Delhi hospitals due to oxygen shortages.
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On 30 March 2022, the official residence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was attacked by a group of BJP supporters during a protest.
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Arvind Kejriwal was then sent to judicial custody until 5 June 2024.
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On 20 June 2024 Arvind Kejriwal was granted bail by the trial court on a bail bond of 100,000 INR.
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Arvind Kejriwal was then questioned for 3 days by the Central Bureau of Investigation and arrested on 26 June 2024 from Tihar Jail in the same case.
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Arvind Kejriwal discussed his views on corruption and the state of the Indian democracy in his book Swaraj.
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Arvind Kejriwal took voluntary retirement in 2016 as Commissioner of Income Tax in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.
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Arvind Kejriwal is a vegetarian and has been practising the Vipassana meditation technique for many years.
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In 2022, the Arvind Kejriwal government was accused by a central government panel of inflating the reported oxygen need of Delhi during the second wave of COVID-19 infections.
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In January 2014, Arvind Kejriwal released a list of most corrupt politicians that included several leaders across the political spectrum.
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Subsequently, Arvind Kejriwal apologised to union minister Nitin Gadkari for his unverified allegations and sought apology from former minister Kapil Sibal.
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In 2016, Arvind Kejriwal made allegations against Bikram Majithia, the then revenue minister of Punjab of involvement in drug trade for which Majithia filed a defamation case against him and two others from Aam Aadmi party.
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Arvind Kejriwal apologised to Majithia a couple of years later in March 2018.
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Arvind Kejriwal made allegations against finance minister Arun Jaitley for irregularities in DDCA.
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On 2 March 2016, Delhi High Court asked Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad to file their written statements in a civil defamation suit of Rs 5 crores filed by DDCA for their alleged remarks against the cricket body regarding its functioning and finances.
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In February 2024, Arvind Kejriwal was involved in a defamation lawsuit and issued an apology to the Supreme Court of India for retweeting YouTuber Dhruv Rathee's 2018 video on BJP IT Cell.
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In late April 2023, BJP made allegations that Arvind Kejriwal had misappropriated public funds for renovations of his residence in Delhi.
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In March 2014, in a leaked video of an interview with journalist Punya Prasun Bajpai, Arvind Kejriwal was seen giving instructions to Bajpai on promoting his interview by comparing his resignation to the sacrifice of Bhagat Singh and dropping a certain portion of interview on privatisation of industries which would portray him anti-middle class.
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Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on 21 March 2024 by the Enforcement Directorate on allegations of a Delhi liquor scam against Aam Aadmi Party's Delhi Government.
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Arvind Kejriwal became the first ever incumbent chief minister in India to be arrested while still holding the post.
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Arvind Kejriwal had skipped nine summons by the Enforcement Directorate as well, before that.
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Arvind Kejriwal was granted bail by the Delhi High Court on 20 June 2024.
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On 20 June 2024, Arvind Kejriwal was released on bail after paying bail bond of one lakh Indian Rupees.
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Arvind Kejriwal's bail was put on hold before release as ED appealed against Kejriwal's bail.
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On 13 September 2024, Arvind Kejriwal was granted bail by Supreme Court while imposing certain restrictions to his office of the Chief Minister.
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Arvind Kejriwal has appeared on the talk-shows and interviews of News channels.
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Arvind Kejriwal appeared in stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra's YouTube interview series Shut Up Ya Kunal.