27. Manish Sisodia Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi

Assumed office

14 February 2015

Chief Minister

Arvind Kejriwal

 Member of the Delhi Legislative Assembly from Patparganj

In office 14 February 2015 – Incumbent

In office 28 December 2013 – 14 February 2014

Preceded by Anil Kumar Choudhary

 Born   5 January 1972 Hapur Uttar Pradesh

Nationality    Indian

 Political party           Aam Aadmi Party

 Education     Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism

Occupation   Politician

Portfolio        Cabinet Minister of Finance and Planning, Revenue, Services, Power, Education, Higher Education, Information Technology, Technical Education, Administrative Reforms

Religion         Hinduism

 Manish Sisodia is an Indian politician who has been the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi since February 2015. He also holds the Finance and Planning, Revenue, Services, Power, Education, Higher Education, Information Technology, Technical Education, Administrative Reforms portfolios in the government of Delhi.[1]Previously, he was briefly a cabinet minister in the Government of Delhi between late December 2013 and February 2014, when he had responsibility for education, PWD, urban development, local bodies and land and building. Prior to being elected to the Legislative Assembly of Delhi in December 2013, Sisodia was a social activist and journalist as well as a member of the National Executive Committee of the Aam Aadmi Party.

Early life and career[edit]

The son of a teacher, Sisodia was born in a village in Hapur district in a Rajput family in (Uttar Pradesh).[2] Sisodia subsequently shifted to the town of Pilkhuva, 50 kilometres from Delhi where he commenced his career as a journalist after completing a post graduate diploma in Journalism from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. From 1997 to 2005, Sisodia worked as a documentary film maker, a TV news channel and news reader.[3]

Activism[edit]

Sisodia's first brush with activism came when he launched his own NGO, Kabir,[4] in Delhi's Pandav Nagar, to campaign for the right to information. This brought him in contact with Parivartan, where he met Kejriwal and was among those selected in 2006 to help draft the Right to Information Act of 2005.[5]

Along with Arvind Kejriwal and Abhinandan Sekhri, Sisodia was a founder of the Public Cause Research Foundation in 2006.[6] He was also a key figure in Kabir, a non-governmental organisation.[7] Later, he became an early participant in the popular movement of 2011 that sought a Jan Lokpal bill. He was involved in drafting the first version of that proposed legislation and was jailed for his involvement in protests.[8]

Political career[edit]

Following the creation of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in late 2012, Sisodia became a member of its Political Affairs Committee. He was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly in the December 2013 Delhi Assembly election, when he defeated Nakul Bhardwaj, a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, by 11,478 votes in the Patparganj constituency of East Delhi.[8][9] He was then appointed cabinet minister in the Government of Delhi, having responsibility for education, PWD, urban development, local bodies and land and building.[8]

In the February 2015 Delhi Assembly election, which resulted in a landslide victory for AAP, he was again elected from Patparganj, defeating Vinod Kumar Binny of the Bharatiya Janata Party by a margin of 28,761 votes.[citation needed]