Ajay Kothiyal

Colonel Ajay Kothiyal, currently and Indian politician was a decorated officer of Indian Army. For his extra-ordinary contribution to the Indian Defence Forces, he was felicitated with the top-notch gallantry awards Kirti Chakra, Shaurya Chakra and Vishisht Seva Medal.

A son of a Border Security Forces officer, Ajay completed his schooling from several schools following to his father's transfer and posting and finally earned a post graduate degree from DAV College Dehradoon after which he cleared Combined Defence Services Exams in 1992 and joined the 22 Gadhwal Battalion.

He is a war veteran and had led an army troop as captain during Kargil war. During his duty in Army Col Ajay successfully performed many overt and covert, punished many militants and during one of the operation in Pulawama, Kashmir back in 2003 he was survived a couple of bullet shot at him from the militants.

Col. Ajay Kothiyal is an ace mountaineer and he has served as the Principal of the Nehru Mountaineering Institute, Uttarakhand. He has two Everest triumph under his belt, the first one came in 2001 when the climbed the Mount Everest under the leadership of Brigadier Krishna Kumar and the second one came in 2012 when he succesfully led a troop of 7 women mountaineer of Indian Army to the Mount Everest for which he was felicitated with Shaurya Chakra by the then president Pratibha Patil.

After his retirement in 2013, Mr. Kothiyal founded youth foundation in Uttarakhand and started training the youth for preparation of Army and other defense services. In April 2021, he joined Aam Aadmi Party.