Delhi’s new chief minister Atishi, till some years ago, would feel uncomfortable when referred to as a politician. Coming from an apolitical background, she would feel embarrassed to be called a politician and would rather be described as a political activist.
In an interaction with THE WEEK before the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, her first electoral outing, Atishi had said, “We come from educated, middle class families, where politics is a bad word, and politicians are not perceived in a positive light.”
Since then, the 42-year-old has only found herself getting more and more deeply involved in the governance of Delhi and is now right at the centre of it as she takes charge as the third women chief minister of Delhi and the youngest person to hold the post.
Atishi grew up in an academic atmosphere, with both her parents – Vijay Kumar Singh and Tripta Wahi – teachers in the Delhi University. But it was also a milieu that was agog with intense political discussions. Atishi’s parents had been Leftist activists in the university and their friends and colleagues were activists and trade unionists. So if not a liking for politics, her upbringing did instil in her an activist streak.
Her surname ‘Marlena’, which she dropped from her name in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections of 2019, was given to her parents as a tribute to Communist thinkers Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. She had to drop it because it was felt by her party, the Aam Aadmi Party, that the rival Bharatiya Janata Party could use the Christian sounding name against her.
She was excellent in academics and did her Masters in History as a Rhodes scholar at the Oxford University. The activist in her surfaced over there as in 2001-03, when she was pursuing her Masters. She participated in the protests that took place against the US military action in Iraq and Afghanistan.
When she returned to India, she decided to work in the field of education. She taught at the Rishi Valley School in Andhra Pradesh for two years. But what she really wanted to do was try and bring about a change in the education scenario at the grassroots level. From 2006 to 2012, she worked with rural communities in Madhya Pradesh to help improve their schools.
It was while working in Madhya Pradesh that she came into contact with the India Against Corruption movement. And when the Aam Aadmi Party was formed in 2012, she opted to pitch in as a volunteer but her association with the party went on increasing and soon she was among its most important leaders.
She played an important role in devising the transformation of schools run by the Delhi government in her capacity as adviser to then deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia who held the education portfolio.
Atishi’s big break came when she was inducted into the Delhi cabinet in March 2023 in the wake of the arrests of Sisodia and another cabinet minister Satyender Jain. Soon, she had the maximum number of portfolios and was seen as the number two in the government after Kejriwal. And when Kejriwal too was arrested in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year, Atishi became the face of Delhi government.
Life has changed fast for Atishi – from feeling embarrassed about being called a politician to becoming the eighth chief minister of Delhi.