Sushilkumar Sambhaji Shinde (born 4 September 1941) is an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra. He was the Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Power in the Manmohan Singh government, and the Leader of the House in Lok Sabha until 26 May 2014. He previously served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 18 January 2003 to October 2004. Early life and education Shinde was born on 4 September 1941 at Solapur in a Dhor caste to Sambhaji Rao Shinde and Sakhu Bai. Shinde completed his education with an honours degree in arts from Dayanand College, Solapur and LLB from ILS Law College and New Law College, University of Bombay, Maharashtra. Early career Sushilkumar Shinde started his career as a bailiff in the Sessions court of Solapur where he worked from 1957 – 1965. He then joined the Maharashtra Police as a constable. Subsequently, he served in the Maharashtra CID for six years, as a sub-inspector of police, under Amukuraj Patil, his CID mentor. Political career In the year 1971, Shinde became a member of the Congress Party. He won the Maharashtra state assembly elections in 1974, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1992, 24 May 2003 to August 2004–(General) by-election, September 2004 to 2 October 2004–(General). Shinde was elected to Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra during July 1992 to March 1998. In 1999, he acted as campaign manager of the Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh. In 2002, Shinde lost the election for the post of Vice-President of India contesting against the National Democratic Alliance candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. He served as the chief minister of Maharashtra from 2003 to 2004. He was appointed the Governor of Andhra Pradesh on 30 October 2004 replacing Surjit Singh Barnala, who became the Governor of Tamil Nadu. He left the office on 29 January 2006. Shinde was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha for the second time from Maharashtra on 20 March 2006. Shinde became the leader of Lok Sabha after his predecessor Pranab Mukherjee was elected President of India. Shinde served as Power minister of India from 2006 to 2012. Later, he was appointed Home Minister of India in 2012. His tenure as a Home Minister saw two major decisions of hanging the terrorists Afzal Guru and Ajmal Kasab. During the 2012 northern India power grid failure, Shinde deflected criticism by observing that India was not alone in suffering major power outages,