Ajay Maken

Ajay Maken is a politician from the Indian National Congress. He has held many posts in the Government of India and Delhi Government.

Political career

Ajay Maken's grandfather, O. P. Maken, was a freedom fighter and his family had political inclinations. He was elected as the President of Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) in 1985, having the rare honour of being the only B.Sc. Chemistry (Hons.) Final Year student to serve this post.^[1] His victory as President, DUSU was largely due to the massive sympathy wave generated by the assassination of his uncle Lalit Maken. , a Member of Parliament from South Delhi. Ajay Maken was subsequently elected as the President of Delhi Transport Corporation Trade Union.

Delhi State Assembly

Mr. Ajay Maken has been elected as a Member of Legislative Assembly^[2] from the Delhi constituency, for three consecutive terms – in 1993, 1998 and 2003.

He was made the Parliamentary Secretary to the Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit in 1999.

In 2001, he was appointed as the Transport, Power and Tourism Minister. He implemented the CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) based Public Transport System in Delhi and is credited with the privatisation of the electricity distribution in Delhi.

In 2004, he was appointed the Speaker of Legislative Assembly of Delhi, at age 39, becoming India's youngest Speaker in a State Assembly.

Lok Sabha

In the 2004 general election, Maken represented the Congress for the New Delhi constituency. He defeated a sitting Cabinet Minister, Jagmohan, from the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate. The constituency was a BJP stronghold, with many BJP stalwarts like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K.Advani having been elected from there.

From 2006 to 2009, he held the independent portfolios as the Minister of State and the Minister of Urban Development, the youngest minister in the Congress to be sworn in the Council of Ministers in Indian Government. H played a key role in finalising the Master Plan for New Delhi. In 2007, he was appointed a permanent invitee to the Working Committee of All India Congress Committee. He was entrusted with the responsibility of the states, Orissa and Jharkhand.

In the 2009 general elections, Maken retained the New Delhi Parliamentary constituency. He was appointed as the Minister of State for Home Affairs, entrusted with countering left wing extremism, raising of additional police battalions, and establishment of a national human rights division.

In 2011, Maken was appointed the Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs^[3] after the 2010 Commonwealth Games debacle, replacing M. S. Gill. He was appointed as Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation in 2012.

Maken was defeated in the 2014 general elections by the BJP candidate Meenakshi Lekhi. He served as the Congress General Secretary until 2015, when he resigned after party's failure to win any seat in the 2015 Delhi Legislative Assembly election.^[4]

CNG Man

He was faced with the daunting task of implementing the Hon'ble Supreme Courts orders to convert Delhi Public Transport to CNG. As Transport Minister he supported and implemented CNG (compressed natural gas) based Public Transport System in Delhi that earned world-wide accolades for being an environment friendly public transport system. This led to improvement in ambient air quality of Delhi, which now has more than 100,000 vehicles running on CNG fuel—the highest in any city in the world.

Personal life

Ajay Maken is married and has three children. He received his education in St. Xavier's School, Delhi.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ajay Maken.

• Official biographical sketch in Parliament of India website
• Ajay Maken on Twitter