Ex-IRS officer who turned housewife, Sunita Kejriwal steps out of the shadows

NEW DELHI: For years, she had maintained a low profile after quitting her govt job, choosing to focus on her family even as husband Arvind Kejriwal maintained a packed schedule thanks to his dual responsibilities of Delhi CM and national convener of AAP. With a tweet on Friday and a digital address to read out his letter from ED custody on Saturday, Sunita Kejriwal has started to take on a public role.
A 1993-batch Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer, Sunita took voluntary retirement in July 2016 after serving for more than two decades in the Income Tax department. According to reports, she was last posted as Commissioner of I-T in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in the capital.
Sunita is said to have met Kejriwal, a 1995-batch IRS officer, during a training programme at Bhopal after which they decided to get married. When Kejriwal decided to quit his Income Tax job, he had full support from Sunita. While Kejriwal spent the next few years as an RTI activist and anti-corruption crusader, Sunita played multiple roles in her office and home – of an upright officer, mother to two young children, and a daughter-in-law who looked after the aging parents.

“During her posting in the Serious Fraud Investigation Office, Sunita, as a sharp investigator, handled cases of several big corporate houses,” said an AAP functionary close to Kejriwal’s family.

During the India Against Corruption movement, Sunita was still in her job but kept a close eye on Kejriwal's diet and medicines. She stood solidly behind him when he decided to form a political party.

She appeared alongside Kerjiwal in celebrations at the party’s then office at Hanuman Road, when AAP won 28 seats in its maiden election and Kejriwal was elected as an MLA from New Delhi.
Though she kept away from day-to-day politics, she campaigned for the party in Lok Sabha as well as assembly elections. When Kejriwal contested against PM Narendra Modi from Varanasi during 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Sunita had taken a long leave from office.

She, along with party workers, went door-to-door telling people about the party’s guarantees during the 2015 Delhi assembly polls. The photograph of the Kejriwals hugging each other when AAP won the election with a huge mandate went viral.
Though she would not attend party meetings, after quitting her job in 2016 Sunita would ensure she was around for the party leaders and workers to interact with her and share their issues. She, along with her daughter Harshita, even campaigned for Bhagwant Mann during the 2022 Punjab assembly polls.