Arvind Kejriwal is an Indian politician, activist and former bureaucrat, who is serving as the 7th and current Chief Minister of Delhi since 2015 and from 2013 to 2014.
50 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 represents New Delhi constituency in the Delhi Legislative Assembly since 2015 and 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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Arvind Kejriwal is a mechanical engineer from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.
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In subsequent 2020 elections, AAP re-emerged victorious and retained the power in Delhi, following which, Arvind Kejriwal was sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Delhi for the third time in row.
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In India, Arvind Kejriwal is the most popular Chief Minister on Twitter and dubbed by media as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's biggest challenger.
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Arvind Kejriwal was born in an Agrawal family of Baniyas 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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Till date Arvind Kejriwal act as a national convenor of AAP.
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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.
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In March 2022, the official residence of CM Arvind Kejriwal was attacked by BJP supporters.
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Arvind Kejriwal petitioned that the attack and vandalization appeared to have been carried out with the "tacit complicity" of Delhi police.
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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 2016, Arvind Kejriwal underwent a surgery for his persistent cough problem.
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Arvind Kejriwal himself refused to acknowledge the film or associate with it publicly due to creative differences with the filmmakers.
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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.