Arvind Kejriwal’s decision to resign as Delhi Chief Minister and hand over the responsibility to senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, Atishi is being largely viewed as a political drama deliberately staged with eyes set on his returning to power. Kejriwal apparently expects his resignation-drama to turn people’s attention to him and subsequently gain their votes. Clearly, if Delhi assembly elections were not around the corner, Kejriwal may not have staged this show. He is apparently confident of being away from the chief ministerial chair for just a few months. This is marked by his stating that he “will not sit on that chair till the people announce their verdict… I will sit in the Chief Minister’s chair only after the order of the people.”
Now, the big question is will Kejriwal really gain from this exercise? At present, he certainly is receiving substantial media attention. Resignation-hype in politics appears to have assumed great importance in politics to gain media coverage and also be used as a strategic electoral card. A few days ago, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tried this strategy but then appears to have abstained from this. To a degree, it does help in diverting attention from negative “news” propagated about the chief minister. Kejriwal hopes to get additional advantage that he stepped aside to let the concerned authorities, particularly voters take their decision regarding his image. This may also be viewed as a political gamble as rival parties/leaders’ primary aim would be to use this reason to add to their negative jargon about him laying stress on his being forced to step away from the chair.
But, Kejriwal is out only on bail. This suggests that “resignation-drama” may not make political moves -till the next assembly elections- as simple and easy as they seem for Kejriwal and his party. It may be noted, Modi’s electoral strategy of banking on his mega-religious card failed to help him win the recent parliamentary elections and return to power on his own party’s strength. Kejriwal cannot ignore the fact that he also has been at the helm as Delhi chief minister for a fairly long time. Of course, he cannot be prevented from assuming that he still remains a favorite of Delhi’s electorate. However, when he first stepped on the political stage, with a newly founded party, he had to encounter Sheila Dikshit. Now, he has his own past record to combat with before voters. Kejriwal has to give explanations for his own record as the chief minister.
Speculations are being voiced on whether he has exercised a shrewd political strategy by selecting Atishi as the new chief minister? Personally, he apparently is confident that he is least likely to be back-stabbed by Atishi where his own political aim is concerned. If AAP returns to power, he trusts Atishi to move aside and leave the chief ministerial chair for him. Atishi has already stated that her goal is to ensure that Kejriwal returns as Delhi chief minister. It may be noted, Atishi played a deft political role as the party spokesperson while he was in prison. This also is a pointer to her being fairly good in handling media personnel.
Yet, it cannot be ignored that AAP is primarily associated with Kejriwal’s name. Atishi stands nowhere in comparison to his political appeal and also that of Manish Sisodia. While the two were in jail, Atishi handled the task of running the Delhi government. From this angle, she can be trusted with carrying on this task now by actually acting as the chief minister nominally also. The subsequent course of developments is likely to be strongly dependent on how does Kejriwal-ego react to Atishi literally sitting on “his” chair but also dominating media and political attention for quite some time. It is not a question of a just a few days but a phase that may spread over several months. On his part, Kejriwal is going to try his best to have the elections advanced reportedly to this November. He is least likely to feel comfortable on this move of his being sidelined, that is elections being held in the coming year, as scheduled, in February. Formally, as he no longer remains the chief minister, Kejriwal’s voice/role doesn’t have the importance as it earlier did. Now, the occupant of the key chair is Atishi. She’d be seated as head of Delhi cabinet meetings and so forth.
Atishi is supposed to have an “untainted” image. Kejriwal’s strategic move is directed at presenting a clean and untainted image of AAP with Atishi as chief minister before the voters. But AAP’s image, as mentioned earlier, is hardly linked with that of Atishi. People link the party primarily with Kejriwal and to a degree with Sisodia, both of whom have been released recently from jail. Certainly, as Atishi handles the government, Kejriwal will have time to campaign extensively. But, voters’ decision is not likely to be dependent on only what Kejriwal propagates. They are likely to give some importance to what his rivals say about him. Kejriwal’s opponents’ primary agenda is likely to focus on charges levied against him and other members of his party. He is out of jail but on bail to contest the charges against him. Even if he succeeds in returning to power, while he may project this as guarantee of people’ faith in his “honesty,” their vote is not going to be accepted as proof of his “innocence” regarding the charges against him. Legally speaking, he will still be faced with task of contesting charges against him.
As a political leader, Kejriwal’s importance is primarily confined to Delhi. He has made attempts to extend his party’s strength to other areas too. He has succeeded to a degree, which is partly proved by his party running the Delhi and Punjab governments. There is a possibility, his stay in jail followed by his resignation as Delhi chief minister may lead to decline in importance of his party and also his own within and outside Delhi. Of course, he expects his latest strategy to work otherwise. However, chances of this limiting his key battle – that of convincing people about his own image- cannot be minimized. He is not battling with Congress leader Sheila Dikshit, who served as Delhi Chief Minister from 1998 to 2013, for three consecutive terms. She failed to return to power on being defeated by Kejriwal. Electoral task faced by Kejriwal may be said to be more complicated than it appears to be. He has to battle his own role as the preceding chief minister and also with his own Kejriwal-ego, which has accepted Atishi chief minister for now. There is no knowing whether he’d still consider this as a strategic move in the coming days. A lot may also be decided by whether Kejriwal-ego remains at ease or not!