Lok Sabha elections 2024: Do or die battle for AAP as Kejriwal absent from campaign

New Delhi: The BJP could not tackle Arvind Kejriwal electorally in the national capital for a decade but has got him behind the bars at least for the time being when AAP is fighting a tactical battle to increase its footprints with the help of its former foe Congress.

The coming days would tell whether the ruling BJP's tactics boomerang on it but the Opposition is sure to up the ante and target the Modi regime charging it with systematically decimating towards the Opposition.

The actions against Kejriwal and Hemant Soren 50 days ago also indicate that the BJP acknowledges the importance these two leaders could play in the Opposition space.

Kejriwal’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) comes at a time when his top aides Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Satyendar Jain are already behind bars, leaving the party with second-rung leadership at the crucial juncture of Lok Sabha elections.

While the AAP has been maintaining that Kejriwal will remain the Chief Minister even if he is in jail, the challenge before the left-over leadership will be to ensure that their individual aspirations do not jeopardise the party's existence itself.

There are no indications of Kejriwal putting in place a leadership mechanism in his absence, especially when senior leaders Sisodia and Jain are unavailable, and the challenge before AAP will be to run the party under collective leadership.

The roles of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Delhi Ministers Atishi, Gopal Rai and Saurabh Bharadwaj and Sandeep Pathak, who is General Secretary (Organisation), would increase while leaders like Jasmine Shah and Raghav Chadha would also have a role to play. 

The immediate task for the party will be to run the Lok Sabha campaign without a hitch, when its star campaigner Kejriwal is behind the bars. The AAP will also have to explain how an anti-corruption hero is now facing corruption charges.

The AAP is contesting the Lok Sabha elections in alliance with Congress in Delhi, Haryana and Gujarat while in Punjab, they are fighting each other. Not known to have any special sympathy for Congress, Mann's next move would be keenly watched especially by the Congress.

Sooner or later, the party will have to look at replacing Kejriwal if he continues to be in jail. Speculation is that Kejriwal's wife Sunita, a former IRS officer, as well as Atishi and Bharadwaj could take the AAP supremo's seat in the government.