The Tribune analysis: 2014 rerun, but will AAP chief’s gamble pay off?
A sense of deja vu gripped national political circles on Sunday as Arvind Kejriwal made the shock announcement of quitting as Chief Minister within 48 hours.
This is not his first gamble. He first rolled the dice on February 14, 2014, barely 49 days after assuming charge as the Delhi CM for the first time on December 28, 2013. But those were different times. Kejriwal, the product of activist Anna Hazare’s 2011 anti-corruption movement, was riding a moral wave when he quit CM-ship citing bulldozing of the Jan Lokpal Bill by both the Congress (which was supporting his government in Delhi) and opposition BJP.
A decade later, scenarios have changed. Kejriwal, then an anti-graft crusader, is today battling graft accusations along with top advisers, including ex-Deputy CM Manish Sisodia. Though both are out on bail, they face the task of reclaiming the moral high that once placed AAP on a pedestal different from other parties.
With the BJP making corruption its principal plank against Kejriwal in the run-up to Delhi elections, the CM needed an out-of-the-box move that he made on Sunday with the announcement of resignation from the post.
Altered scenarios notwithstanding, neutral observers feel the resignation was the wisest call Kejriwal could have taken in the given circumstances when the Supreme Court had clipped all his wings as the CM. “What was the gain for Arvind Kejriwal to remain only a titular CM of Delhi? Under the circumstances, he has decided wisely,” said former Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar.
A former Congress veteran, Kumar argued that announcing the resignation “was only the right thing to do considering Kejriwal had been disabled by the Supreme Court order to act as the Chief Minister in any meaningful way.”
“In terms of perception and political morality, this was the wisest call to take. This might help him to refurbish his political credentials even though we know that elections are another matter,” Kumar said, adding that the Haryana contest was clearly between the Congress and the BJP, with the Congress in pole position. That said, the consequences of Kejriwal’s move would need to be watched closely.
In Jharkhand, a similar situation did not turn out well for CM Hemant Soren who faced a rebellion when, upon return from jail, he asked Champai Soren to vacate the CM’s chair for him. Champai resigned and jumped ship to the BJP on the eve of Jharkhand elections, which are due in November.
Earlier in 2015, Nitish Kumar faced a split in the JD(U) when he reclaimed Bihar CM-ship from Jitan Ram Manjhi. Manjhi resigned as the CM but formed his own party, Hindustan Awam Morcha (Secular). Though Kejriwal at the moment appears a clear numero uno of AAP, he would need to navigate the political landscape deftly with the BJP framing his resignation as an “admission of guilt in the excise scam”.
AAP insiders, however, believe Kejriwal’s move will yield sympathies for the party whose entire top brass was jailed in the excise “scam”. They also feel Kejriwal can again take the moral high having sacrificed the CM’s position at the altar of the people and surrendering his political future for their sake.
It remains to be seen if the AAP chief’s fresh gamble will yield the glory of 2015 and 2020 when he led the party to huge victory in the Delhi Assembly poll — feats that powered AAP’s elevation to national party status in April 2023, just 11 years after its establishment in November 2012.
