AAP veteran Atishi to be Delhi's new CM--elite background, clean image

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi will replace Arvind Kejriwal as the next Chief Minister of Delhi. Mr Kejriwal, who had decided to step down as CM, proposed Atishi's name to succeed him during the AAP legislative meeting held on Tuesday afternoon.

A member of the AAP’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC), she has been a minister in the outgoing Arvind Kejriwal cabinet since March last year. The MLA for Kalkaji in Delhi, Ms Atishi takes the top chair months ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections. 

Ms Atishi has been elected as the leader of Delhi AAP Legislative Party as well. 

An AAP veteran

Ms Atishi, 43, has been a prominent face of the AAP and the Delhi government. She holds 14 key portfolios in the outgoing Kejriwal-led government including Finance, Education, Public Works Department, and Power. She won the Kalkaji seat in the 2020 Assembly polls. She lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election from East Delhi to BJP's Gautam Gambhir.

Until April 2018, she served as Education Minister Manish Sisodia’s advisor. She played a pivotal role in revamping the state of education in government-run schools in the national capital. She is also credited for initiatives such as the ‘Happiness Curriculum’ in Delhi schools.

Ms Atishi was the most prominent face of the AAP, especially after Mr Sisodia was arrested in the Delhi excise policy case. She was the BJP's fiercest critic when both Mr Sisodia and r Kejriwal were behind bars in the excise police case. 

Marlena, Marx, and Lenin

Born on June 8, 1981, to Delhi University professors Vijay Kumar Singh and Tripta Wahi, Atishi did her schooling at Springdale School in New Delhi. She studied history at St Stephen’s College and stood first in Delhi University. She pursued her Master's degree at Oxford University on a Chevening scholarship.

She was given the middle name 'Marlena' by her parents. According to her party, the name was a portmanteau of Marx and Lenin. In 2018, right before the national elections, she, however, chose to use ‘Atishi’ as her name, dropping her surname from daily use, since she wanted people to focus on her work rather than her lineage.

'Atishi has been a committed activist who has chosen politics to achieve lasting change, says the AAP website. She spent seven years in a small village in Madhya Pradesh where she got involved in organic farming and progressive education systems. She worked with several non-profit organisations there, where she met some AAP members for the first time.

Clean image

Atishi joined the AAP at the time of its inception. A key member of the Manifesto Drafting Committee of the party for the 2013 Assembly election, she played an important role in shaping the party’s policies in the early stages of formation. She has registered her presence as a spokesperson of the party.

With a clean image, Ms Atishi could make an impression on the women's constituency that Congress leader and former chief minister of Delhi, the late Sheila Dikshit used to enjoy.  said.

Ms Dikshit was the longest-serving chief minister of Delhi and the longest-serving woman chief minister of any Indian state for 15 years from 1998 until 2013 when Mr Kejriwal’s AAP wrested Delhi from the Congress party.

(By arrangement with livemint.com)