Manish Sisodia

Manish Sisodia
Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 February 2015
Chief Minister	Arvind Kejriwal
Preceded by	Post created
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
Succeeded by	President's Rule
Personal details
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. 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

The son of a teacher, Sisodia was born in a village in Hapur district in a Rajput family in (Uttar Pradesh). 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.

Activism

Sisodia's first brush with activism came when he launched his own NGO, Kabir, 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.

Along with Arvind Kejriwal and Abhinandan Sekhri, Sisodia was a founder of the Public Cause Research Foundation in 2006. He was also a key figure in Kabir, a non-governmental organisation. 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.

Political career

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. He was then appointed cabinet minister in the Government of Delhi, having responsibility for education, PWD, urban development, local bodies and land and building.

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.

Award & Recognition

• 2016: 100 most influential Indians 2016 by The Indian Express

External links

• Official Twitter