By choosing Atishi to succeed him, Delhi’s beleaguered and now former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has signalled that he means business on the governance front.
With 14 portfolios under her command, Atishi proved to be an able administrator and an effective communicator throughout Kejriwal’s seven-month-long incarceration on charges of corruption in the infamous Delhi excise policy case.
Atishi’s chief asset, however, is that she is the face of AAP’s most successful brand-building exercise – government school reforms. First as advisor to former deputy CM Manish Sisodia and later as education minister, Atishi is largely responsible for scripting the turnaround in schools run by Delhi's administration, now being touted by AAP as the pivot of its "Delhi model of governance."
Kejriwal prides himself on being an atypical politician. This is probably why he chose to defy speculation that his choice of successor would be a political decision. Unlike conventional parties, he did not opt for the symbolism of caste, community, or gender while picking the next CM.
Atishi Was the Best Bet
That Atishi happens to be a woman is beside the point. The message that Kejriwal hopes to send through her appointment is that merit and ideological commitment count in AAP.
Atishi is one of the best and brightest minds in the party. A Rhodes scholar with degrees from Oxford University and a clean image, she represents what attracted Delhi’s middle classes to AAP in the heady days of its early rise.
Over the years, as he dirtied his hands in the muddy waters of Indian politics, Kejriwal lost that constituency. The Delhi excise policy scandal and the corruption cases that entangled his closest confidantes before finally tainting him were the last straw that broke the camel’s back. For the disillusioned middle-class voters of Delhi, Kejriwal and AAP became just another political party.
By defying chatter that he may opt for a Jat (with an eye on the Haryana elections), a Dalit (to reach out to the SC voter), a Bania (to keep his trader base happy) or his wife Sunita (to keep a check on factionalism in his party), perhaps Kejriwal hopes to rekindle his lost romance with the middle class through someone like Atishi who is clearly one of them.
Although the numbers in a democracy are with the poor and marginalised, no one knows better than Kejriwal that the middle classes often drive the political narrative, as they did when he first burst into the political scene with the 2011 anti-corruption movement.
At this point in his political career, when his halo has dimmed, when he is bruised and battered by corruption charges, and with the Delhi assembly elections merely months away, he needs all the help he can get to craft a new vocabulary for AAP to save his bastion in the national capital.
In this respect, Atishi was his best bet. After Kejriwal went to jail, she kept the AAP flag flying, cogently articulating party positions on tricky issues, sparring Kejriwal-style with Lt Governor VK Saxena on people-related issues, going on a hunger strike when water shortages hit Delhi through the long hot summer months, and maintaining high visibility on behalf of her party chief so that he would not be forgotten.
Delhi is a Political Minefield
However, while becoming CM gives Atishi a huge leg-up in the party hierarchy, making her the first among equals, the CM’s post could also prove to be a crown of thorns.
Her slim shoulders will have to bear the burden of steering a government that is likely to run into the Saxena brick wall on every issue. Under the Government of NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Bill 2023, Delhi is effectively a union territory albeit one with an elected legislature, not even a half-state.
The CM has curtailed powers with most decisions needing the LG’s approval. In any case, the crucial powers of policing and land were always vested with the union government, even before the 2023 amendment. As the Delhi elections near, political temperatures are bound to rise, leading to increasing friction between the LG's office and the CM’s office.
Consider the minefield Atishi will have to negotiate in the months ahead as she struggles to run a good government amid increasingly fractious politics. On the one hand, Kejriwal will be on the streets, guns blazing at the BJP and targeting the LG as a proxy of the Modi government. On the other, the BJP will use every resource possible to discredit Kejriwal and cripple both the party and the government.
Given Kejriwal’s communication skills and his expertise in spinning emotive narratives, the AAP chief could win brownie points in the perception battle.
However, Atishi has a far more difficult task on her hands. The Delhi excise case and the constant friction with the LG’s office have taken quite a toll on good governance in Delhi. Today, people are disgusted by the mountains of garbage everywhere, the broken roads, the havoc wreaked by heavy monsoon rains amid delayed desilting of drains and the dilapidated air of a city in decay.
Kejriwal has handed Atishi a heavy burden to bear. Can she repair the damage in the short time she has before the elections are announced? Can she post any achievements while a daily battle rages between Kejriwal and Saxena?
(Arati R Jerath is a Delhi-based senior journalist. She tweets @AratiJ. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)