Delhi’s new CM

OUT on bail in the excise policy case, AAP chief and outgoing CM Arvind Kejriwal has entrusted party leader Atishi with the onerous task of putting Delhi’s governance back on track. Welfare schemes and development works have been in limbo in the national capital for almost six months following Kejriwal’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The growing public discontent with the AAP government has prompted him to step down and throw the ball in the voters’ court. With the Assembly elections just five months away — unless they are held ahead of schedule — he is seeking a ‘certificate of innocence’ from the people of Delhi.

It will be a race against time for CM-designate Atishi to ensure that various pending projects are expeditiously completed and the flagship schemes cover all intended beneficiaries. New promises will have to be announced in a bid to retake control of its populist narrative. Considering Kejriwal’s many run-ins with the Lt Governor, it is too much to expect that Atishi will have a cordial relationship with the Centre’s appointee. Another big challenge will be to carve a niche for herself and dispel the notion that she is a rubber-stamp CM under her mentor’s control.

Kejriwal would be well advised to focus on revitalising his party, whose ‘politics of honesty’ has been severely undermined by the accusations levelled against him and other AAP leaders by the ED and the CBI. AAP, which was accorded the status of a national party last year, is trying to gain a foothold in Haryana after drawing a blank in Delhi and winning only three out of 13 seats in Punjab in this year’s Lok Sabha elections. The strategy of playing the victim card and accusing the BJP-led Centre of political vendetta has to be complemented by earnest efforts to redress people’s grievances in Delhi as well as Punjab. AAP’s emphasis, now more than ever before, should be on corruption-free governance and hassle-free delivery of services.