Hyderabad: Atishi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader is all set to replace Arvind Kejriwal as Delhi Chief Minister as party cadre and legislators unanimously picked her name after AAP supremo’s decision to step down.
But who is Atishi, let’s find out:
The 43-year-old was born on June 8, 1981, to Delhi University Professors Vijay Kumar Singh and Tripta Wahi. They were the believers of the communist ideology and gave her a surname called, Marlena, which was a portmanteau of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.
Atishi completed her schooling at Springdale School, New Delhi. She went on to study history at St. Stephen's College, where she graduated as the top student at Delhi University in 2001. Later, she completed her Master's degree on a prestigious Chevening scholarship in 2003.
She completed her second Master's from Magdalen College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in Educational Research, after two years.
Atishi became a member of AAP since its inception. She was a key member of the party's Manifesto drafting committee in 2013. After the formation of the party, she worked as an advisor on policies related to education.
As per PTI, she spent some years of her life in Madhya Pradesh learning organic farming and progressive education. She became even more committed to political reform as a result of this encounter, a party member told the agency.
After being selected as the party's candidate and receiving a ticket to run in the Lok Sabha elections from New Delhi, Atishi chose to discontinue going by her married name, Marlena. The party claimed that the action was taken because the BJP, which had captured all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in 2014, was attempting to divide voters by insinuating by her surname that she was either a foreigner or a Christian.
Atishi was appointed in charge of the East Delhi Lok Sabha Constituency, where her responsibility was to build the party's organisation ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election. However, she lost the East Delhi seat to BJP's Gautam Gambhir in that election by a margin of 4.5 lakh votes and came third behind Arvinder Singh Lovely, a congress candidate.
Then Atishi contested the Assembly elections in Delhi from Kalkaji in 2020 and won by a margin of over 11,000 votes.
She was also an advisor to the Education Minister, Manish Sisodia until 2018. She played a major role in updating the state of education in government-run schools in the nation's capital, according to the AAP website. She is also credited with some initiatives for the 'Happiness Curriculum' in Delhi schools.
After being appointed as the party's spokeswoman in 2018, she became known for her articulation of the policies of the Delhi government and her tenacious defence of it against attacks.
After Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia's arrest in the alleged Delhi Excise Policy, Atishi was thrust into the spotlight. She was the most prominent face of the party and a fierce critique of BJP.
Atishi holds over 14 key portfolios in the outgoing Kejriwal-led government, including Finance, Education, Public Works Department, Power, Revenue, Law, Planning, Services, Information and Publicity, and Vigilance.
She is also a member of AAP's Political Affairs Committee and has been a minister in the outgoing Arvind Kejriwal cabinet since March last year
She will assume the top chair months ahead of the assembly elections scheduled in Delhi.