Arvind Kejriwal is only the second Chief Minister to be an IITian after his Goa counterpart Manohar Parrikar and joins a select group of ministers like Ajit Singh and Jairam Ramesh whose alma mater is the crown jewel of the country’s higher education.
A product of Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Khargapur, 45-year-old Kejriwal studied Mechanical Engineering and passed out in 1989. Besides Parrikar and Kejriwal, the other IIT alumni who are among the handful of highly-qualified technocrat politicians include Union Ministers Ajit Singh and Jairam Ramesh. Parrikar passed out as a metallurgical engineer from IIT, Mumbai. Meanwhile, speculation is rife that Nilekani, currently Head of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), could be the Congress candidate from Bangalore South.
Kejriwal also has a fellow IITian for company in the Delhi Cabinet. Somnath Bharti, who did his MSc from IIT Delhi, won the Malviya Nagar assembly seat under which the campus of the prestigious institute falls. On one occasion, six IITians, all in their 20s, as a group ventured into politics and also floated an outfit in 2005.
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