From being an adviser to the Delhi government to becoming a key face of the cabinet in the absence of senior AAP leaders, Chief Minister-designate Atishi's ascent in the party and government is believed to be "phenomenal" and "meteoric". After taking oath, Atishi will become the youngest Chief Minister and third woman Chief Minister of Delhi. She was unanimously chosen as chief minister designate during the legislature party meeting here on Tuesday.
Being chosen just months short of Delhi polls, Atishi has her task cut out. She will have to hold cabinet meetings to approve and fast track key projects and policies like the Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana and the Electric Vehicle 2.0 Policy among others.
Atishi was a founding member of AAP and played a pivotal role in shaping its policies, including as a key member of the 2013 Manifesto Drafting Committee. Known for her articulate advocacy, she has been a consistent voice for the party's principles.
She spent seven years in a Madhya Pradesh village, focusing on organic farming and progressive education. This experience played a crucial role in strengthening her dedication to political change, according to a party functionary. Even though Atishi joined AAP in 2013, she stayed in the background working as an adviser to the government on education-related policies and made a foray into electoral politics only in 2019 when she contested the Lok Sabha polls from East Delhi against BJP's Gautam Gambhir, only to taste defeat.
Atishi, a brilliant academic, earned her Bachelor’s degree in History from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, where she ranked 1st in her batch. She then went on to the University of Oxford, holding postgraduate degrees in Education and History, securing the prestigious Rhodes and Radhakrishnan-Chevening Scholarships. Her academic journey has profoundly shaped her work in school reform, bringing her intellectual rigor and vision into transforming education.
Before venturing into active politics, Atishi had dropped her surname Marlena, a portmanteau of Marx and Lenin, since she wanted that her political affiliations should not be misconstrued. In the lead upto the 2019 elections, she had accused the BJP candidate of slandering her and distributing pamphlets containing "obscene" remarks about her, which had even led her to breaking down at a press conference.
In 2020, Atishi again contested elections, this time the Delhi Assembly polls, and was elected as an MLA from Kalkaji. She was inducted into the cabinet at a time when the government was staring at a crisis in the aftermath of arrest of Manish Sisodia in February last year in the excise policy case. Atishi is not only the key face of the cabinet but is also an important cog in the wheel of AAP as she also puts forth the views of the party on critical issues. It is not a surprise that she was the frontrunner for the top post and also pipped others to replace Kejriwal. The fact that she enjoys the confidence of Kejriwal and Sisodia worked in tilting the scales in her favour.
But Atishi rose to the occasion and took to governance. Steadily, she rose through the ranks and is currently holding the highest number of portfolios, including key ones such as finance, PWD and education.
While Sisodia and Kejriwal were in jail, Atishi not only took care of governance but also defended the government and the party whenever it was on a sticky wicket.
Be it at the time of Delhi water crisis or when party's Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal alleged assault by Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar, she vehemently thwarted the criticism by the opposition parties.
Atishi is not only the key face of the cabinet but is also an important cog in the wheel of AAP as she also puts forth the views of the party on critical issues. It is not a surprise that she was the frontrunner for the top post and also pipped others to replace Kejriwal.
Her parents Vijay Singh and Tripta Wahi were Delhi University professors who have come under fire over their alleged links with terrorist Afzal Guru.
