Arvind Kejriwal

Arvind Kejriwal (Hindi pronunciation: [əɾʋin̪d̪ ked͡ʒɾiːʋaːl]; born 16 August 1968) is an Indian politician, activist and former bureaucrat, who served as the 7th Chief Minister of Delhi. He was the chief minister from 2013 to 2014 and from 2015 to 2024. He is also the national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) since 2012. He represented the New Delhi constituency in the Delhi Legislative Assembly from 2015 to 2025, and previously from 2013 to 2014.

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. The same year, after resigning from government service, he founded the Public Cause Research Foundation to campaign for transparent governance. Before entering politics, Kejriwal had worked in the Indian Revenue Service. Prior to that, he was a mechanical engineer from IIT Kharagpur.

In 2012, he launched the AAP. In 2013, he assumed office as the Chief Minister of Delhi and resigned 49 days later over his inability to mobilise support for his proposed anti-corruption legislation. In the 2015 Delhi Legislative Assembly elections, the AAP registered an unprecedented majority. In subsequent 2020 elections, AAP re-emerged victorious and retained power in Delhi, following which, Kejriwal was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Delhi for the third time in a row. Outside Delhi, his party registered another major victory in 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election.

He was arrested on 21 March 2024 by the Enforcement Directorate on allegations of a liquor scam against the Aam Aadmi Party led Delhi Government. He became the first ever sitting chief minister in India to be arrested. His other party leaders, Satyendra Jain, Sanjay Singh and Manish Sisodia have also spent months to years in jail without bail, trial or conviction. The opposition alliance called the arrest weeks before the 2024 Indian general election, a case of fabrication and "match-fixing" by the BJP. Amnesty International said that financial and terrorism laws have been weaponised to go after political opponents. On 10 May, the Supreme Court ordered Kejriwal's release on interim bail until 1 June 2024, on account of campaigning for the election. Kejriwal surrendered at Tihar Jail after the expiry of his bail period on 2 June 2024. On 13 September 2024, he was granted bail by Supreme Court with certain conditions, the case still continues. On 17 September 2024, he resigned as Delhi Chief Minister saying he will only become CM again if he receives a public mandate.

His party suffered a heavy defeat in the 2025 Delhi Legislative Assembly election, with he himself losing his seat to Parvesh Verma by a margin of over 4,000 votes from the New Delhi Assembly constituency along with many other notable party members of AAP

Early life and education

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 Kejriwal and Gita Devi. His father was an electrical engineer who graduated from the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra. Kejriwal spent most of his childhood in north Indian towns such as Sonipat, Ghaziabad and Hisar. He was educated at Campus School in Hisar and at Holy Child School at Sonipat. In 1985, he took the IIT-JEE exam and secured All India Rank (AIR) of 563. He graduated from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, majoring in mechanical engineering.

He joined Tata Steel in 1989 and was posted in Jamshedpur, Bihar (now in Jharkhand). Kejriwal resigned in 1992, having taken leave of absence to study for the Civil Services Examination. He spent some time in Calcutta (present-day Kolkata), 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.

Career

Arvind Kejriwal joined the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) as an Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax in 1995, after qualifying through the Civil Services Examination. In February 2006, he resigned from his position as Joint Commissioner of Income Tax in New Delhi.

In 2012, Arvind Kejriwal founded the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to fight corruption and improve governance. The party made its mark in the 2013 Legislative Assembly election, but his first government lasted only 49 days. In 2015, Kejriwal returned with a decisive victory, focusing on education, healthcare, and welfare. He was re-elected in 2020, further cementing his leadership in Delhi. However, his defeat in 2025 in Delhi polls revealed his short comings. Since 2012, he has acted as the main national convenor of AAP.

Activism

Parivartan and Kabir

In December 1999, while still in service with the Income Tax Department, Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and others founded a movement named Parivartan (which means "change"), in the Sundar Nagar area of Delhi. A month later, in January 2000, Kejriwal took a sabbatical from work to focus on Parivartan.

Parivartan addressed citizens' grievances related to Public Distribution System (PDS), public works, social welfare schemes, income tax and electricity. It was not a registered NGO - it ran on individual donations, and was characterised as a jan andolan ("people's movement") by its members. Later, in 2005, Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia launched Kabir, a registered NGO named after the medieval philosopher Kabir. Like Parivartan, Kabir was also focused on RTI and participatory governance. However, unlike Parivartan, it accepted institutional donations. According to Kejriwal, Kabir was mainly run by Sisodia.

In 2000, Parivartan filed a public interest litigation (PIL) demanding transparency in public dealings of the Income Tax department, and also organised a satyagraha outside the Chief Commissioner's office. Kejriwal and other activists also stationed themselves outside the electricity department, asking visitors not to pay bribes and offered to help them in getting work done for free.

In 2001, the Delhi government enacted a state-level Right To Information (RTI) Act, which allowed the citizens to access government records for a small fee. Parivartan used RTI to help people get their work done in government departments without paying a bribe. In 2002, the group obtained official reports on 68 public works projects in the area, and performed a community-led audit to expose misappropriations worth ₹ 7 million in 64 of the projects. On 14 December 2002, Parivartan organised a Jan sunvai (public hearing), in which the citizens held public officials and leaders accountable for the lack of development in their locality.

In 2003 (and again in 2008), Parivartan exposed a PDS scam, in which ration shop dealers were siphoning off subsidised foodgrains in collusion with civic officials. In 2004, Parivartan used RTI applications to access communication between government agencies and the World Bank, regarding a project for privatisation of water supply. Kejriwal and other activists questioned the huge expenditure on the project and argued that it would hike water tariffs ten-fold, thus effectively cutting off the water supply to the city's poor. The project was stalled as a result of Parivartan's activism. Another campaign by Parivartan led to a court order that required private schools, which had received public land at discounted prices, to admit more than 700 poor kids without a fee.

Along with other social activists like Anna Hazare, Aruna Roy and Shekhar Singh, Kejriwal came to be recognised as an important contributor to the campaign for a national-level Right to Information Act (enacted in 2005). He 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. The award recognised him for activating the RTI movement at the grassroots and empowering New Delhi's poor citizens to fight corruption.

By 2012, Parivartan was largely inactive. Sundar Nagri, where the movement was concentrated, suffered from irregular water supply, unreliable PDS system and poorly done public works. Calling it "ephemeral and delusionary in nature", Kejriwal noted that Parivartan's success was limited, and the changes brought by it did not last long.

Public Cause Research Foundation

In December 2006, Kejriwal established the Public Cause Research Foundation in December 2006, together with Manish Sisodia and Abhinandan Sekhri. He donated his Ramon Magsaysay Award prize money as a seed fund. Besides the three founders, Prashant Bhushan and Kiran Bedi served as the Foundation's trustees. This new body paid the employees of Parivartan. 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.

Jan Lokpal movement

In 2010, Kejriwal protested against corruption in the Commonwealth Games. He argued that the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) 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. He advocated appointment of public ombudsman - Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in states.