THE KEJRIWAL GAMEPLAN

OUT ON BAIL, THE AAP CHIEF USES HIS RESIGNATION AS A TRUMP CARD TO COUNTER CORRUPTION CHARGES IN THE POLLS AHEAD

-  Avishek G. Dastidar

Delhi has only one chief minister and his name is Arvind Kejriwal," announced the capital's new CM, Atishi. These evocative words came a mere 48 hours after Kejriwal's surprise announcement that he was resigning from the office he had held for nearly a decade-to popular acclaim initially, but ground down by attritional politics of late that saw him jailed on corruption charges. Nominated by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on September 17 as Kejriwal's successor, what Atishi was suggesting is that hers was only a stopgap regency-that the icon was only in temporary eclipse.

With this tactical 'retreat offensive', Kejriwal has declared Delhi's election season open, way earlier than his detractors would have anticipated. Analysts call his resignation a "political weapon" that seeks to wrest back the moral high ground.

But for that to fructify fully, AAP desperately needs to get out of the shadow of the excise policy case before the election. Kejriwal has even demanded early polls-along with the Maharashtra election in November-but the Election Commission is unlikely to concede the demand. Delhi is due for polls in five months, in February 2025.

"It's a very sad moment that Delhi's beloved CM has had to resign today due to the BJP's conspiracy," Atishi said after emerging out of the AAP legislative party meeting. But it does mean that Delhi gets its third woman chief minister, a decade after Kejriwal rode to power ousting the Congress's Sheila Dikshit. Despite Atishi's self-deprecation, some of the spotlight will shift to her own passage, now that she's cast in a leadership position for the first time. A change of face at the helm also deflects the attacks on Kejriwal, freeing him from the responsibilities of office to take a hands-on role in the election campaign, first for the Haryana assembly and then in Delhi.