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Who is Dilip Pandey
Dilip Pandey is an Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader in Delhi. In 2015, he was appointed as the convenor of AAP’s Delhi unit, but he resigned after the AAP’s loss in the 2017 civic body (Municipal Corporation of Delhi, or MCD) polls.
Born and brought up in Zamania, a small tehsil in UP, Dilip Pandey was working as an IT expert in Hong Kong when he came in touch with the India Against Corruption movement led by Anna Hazare. The Hazare-led movement had begun in 2011 when many cases of corruption by government functionaries had surfaced. This movement demanded accountability through the Jan Lokpal, an independent organisation investigating cases of corruption. This movement led to many bankers, IT experts, and other corporate job holders quitting their professions and dive into politics. The movement later gave birth to a political party which was named AAP and led by the likes of Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Yogendra Yadav, and other leaders.
Dilip Pandey was a prominent face of this civil society-led movement. The decision to turn the movement into a political party led to a division in the party and leaders like Kiran Bedi, now the Governor of Puducherry, decided against joining the party. Anna Hazare, the lynchpin of the movement, also decided against joining the party.
But Dilip Pandey chose to join the party and helped AAP script history in 2015 when it won 67 of the 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly, reducing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) just three seats. The Congress was not able to open its account.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Pandey contested from the North East Delhi Lok Sabha seat against the BJP’s Manoj Tiwari and the Congress’ Sheila Dixit and lost. The seat was bagged by Tiwari.
The 2020 Delhi Assembly elections, crucial for the Aam Admi Party, will see Pandey contesting from the Timarpur seat.
Dilip Pandey is also the author of two books — ‘Dahleez Par Dill’, based on his political and social experience, and ‘Khulti Girahein’, which talks about five women characters and their life struggles.
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