Manish Sisodia: Journalist, Activist, Now Deputy Chief Minister

New Delhi:

Manish Sisodia, a soft-spoken former journalist and Arvind Kejriwal's closest associate, is now the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi.

AAP's political affairs committee decided on the night of 11th February to appoint Mr Sisodia as Deputy Chief Minister in the Arvind Kejriwal government, so that Mr Kejriwal can focus on building the party at the national level, party sources said.

Manish Sisodia is credited with strengthening AAP at the grassroots level after it lost all seven parliamentary constituencies in the Lok Sabha elections to the BJP last year.

In the 49 days of AAP's last stint in government he served as minister for Education, PWD, Urban Development and Local Bodies.

Manish Sisodia has been ubiquitous at the side of Mr Kejriwal ever since the latter launched his Aam Aadmi Party. He accompanies his party chief to most important meetings; he was there when Mr Kejriwal met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the latter's residence on 12th February morning.

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Mr Sisodia got a diploma in journalism from the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan in 1993 and worked first with television channel Zee News and then All India Radio.

He quit journalism in 2006 to function full-time as a Rights to Information or RTI activist and was one of the founding members of the Janlokpal agitation.

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Mr Sisodia was also on the team that first drafted Mr Kejriwal's Jan Lokpal Bill and was prominent in the anti-corruption campaign led by Gandhian activist Anna Hazare in 2011. When Mr Hazare was arrested and sent to jail during the agitation, Mr Sisodia too was imprisoned.

He won this week from the Patparganj constituency defeating the BJP's Vinod Kumar Binny in what was seen as one of the tougher contests. Mr Binny was expelled from AAP last year.