Mahesh Vijapurkar

It is unusual in the political history of India that a chief minister of a state can remain without a portfolio but run the state by his superintendence, leaving the nitty-gritties to his subordinate ministers, including the deputy chief minister. The one person who did that was Arvind Kejriwal who quit the post today. His not holding portfolios and letting the state be run by others meant complete political control and strong loyalties of his ministers and MLAs who despite the presence of a mischievous Centre stayed within the flock. Not one MLA left the party; it is unlikely that the BJP did not want to fish for defectors – their Operation Kamala. For all administrative purposes, Manish Sisodia as the deputy chief minister led the team. The greatest number of portfolios were held by Atishi, who was elected to succeed Kejriwal today. It is natural she stepped into his shoes, but not his political shoes. Compared to Kejriwal’s shoes, their feet were smaller. One did not know what surprises he would spring. For, for the Aam Aadmi Party, Kejriwal is the core. His position has not weakened one bit over the three terms in office. In fact, to an extent that AAP and Kejriwal are synonymous and the party itself brought that about wittingly or unwittingly. During the past four-five years, the other party stalwarts themself referred to him more than to the party in all public meetings – Kejriwal’s guarantees akin to Modi’s guaranty. The party came second as an identifier if at all. Aam Aadmi Party’s acronym, AAP, literally translates to ‘you’ in Hindi. It was a clever christening when the party started against all odds. It worked well to be told to the people that “’You (aap) will replace the Congress” when it successfully fought to oust Sheila Dikshit and her team. The acronym helped band people into a phalanx that conveyed to them, the voters, of their power and the elected would not be in power, but the people would be. The party and the people were tied together to enable the spectacular ascendancy to power with an unheard-of majority in legislative history. The single digit presence of the BJP in the 2019 left them like a footnote. Kejriwal, however, remains at the centre of it all. Manish Sisodia today tweeted that it was Atishi’s task to keep the government in play so that Kejriwal comes back to power. It implied that she must leave no stone unturned against any action by the BJP which would lead to the party – oops, Kejriwal – getting unstuck. Arvind Kejriwal promptly retweeted it. The obvious was also suggested today. Any person elected by the party MLAs remains maximum only for the term of the legislature or if midway, for the remainder of its life. But it was rubbed in with a senior leader asserting that anyone who replaced Kejriwal would protect the chair for him, like Bharat did in Ramayana for Ram. They did not hesitate to state that regardless of who was the chief minister, “Kejriwal would always be the CM”. That is as far as it can get to idolizing the man. So much so, even the Punjab’s chief minister Bhagwant Mann normally announces schemes not as Punjab government’s schemes but Kejriwal’s. Much like everything that the Centre does is by or due to Narendra Modi. That the party is Kejriwal and Kejriwal is the party has been in the air for a long time but went uncommented upon. The party has built Kejriwal into an unmissable brand. He officially also holds the office of the convenor of the AAP which makes him its High Command. He has had his way, no questions asked making it clear that if he has detractors, they are from outside. When he was in the jail, the partymen did not object to his wife emerging on the scene, first as a messenger carrying oral missives to him and bringing back instructions. Nor did they object when she became a campaigner and addressed rallies. Nor was there any explicit disquiet when she was talked of as a likely successor to him. Possibly because she too was an ‘aam’ person like most others in the party who made they came on the scene or because she was his wife. It was Kejriwal who proposed at the party’s legislature wing’s meeting that Atishi succeed him as the chief minister. It was Kejriwal who announced the other day at the party office that along with him Manish Sisodia would also resign from his post. His writ runs but the two days of consultations gave the impression of consensus building. Kejriwal thinks out of the box, others follow him. Kejriwal knows how to turn adverse situations into opportunities. When the court released him and tied his hands behind his back – he could not go to the secretariat, or his own office nor sign any files – he made a political virtue of it by quitting and taking Sisodia along with him. So far it is not known if it had the courtesy of his consent. Silence is acceptance even if it is post-facto.

Mahesh Vijapurkar

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