Opinion Kejriwal is not eyeing the chief minister’s post in Punjab, here’s why

It was only on late Wednesday afternoon, that Delhi’s CM cleared the air at a rally in Patiala, saying that if AAP wins in Punjab, it will have ‘a CM who is from Punjab and not from Pakistan or London.’

delhi mcd election, aam aadmi party, AAP candidates, AAP candidates MCD election, MCD election aam aadmi party

Patiala : Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal during an election campaign rally in support of party candidate Palwinder Kaur at Badshahpur in Patiala on Wednesday. PTI Photo (PTI1_11_2017_000240A)

Sweta Dutta

New DelhiJanuary 12, 2017 12:52 PM IST First published on: Jan 12, 2017 at 12:52 PM IST

Kejriwal, Delhi CM, arvind kejriwal, AAP, AAP chief, AAP convener, Punjab chief minister, punjab polls, punjab assembly elections, punjab assembly elections 2017, manish sisodia, sisodia, punjab AAP, punjab polls news, indian express news

Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal during an election campaign rally in support of party candidate Palwinder Kaur at Badshahpur in Patiala on Wednesday. (Source: PTI Photo)

It is pertinent to note that Aam Aadmi Party chief, Arvind Kejriwal took a good 24 hours to deny that he had ambitions to become Punjab’s chief minister. Usually, Kejriwal responds within minutes on social media to bouquets and brickbats alike. Minutes after Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia told a gathering in Mohali on Tuesday that people should vote for AAP ‘assuming that Kejriwal will be CM’, the SAD-BJP and Congress in Punjab accused Kejriwal of wanting to desert Delhi for his personal ambitions in Punjab.

However, Sisodia, who usually weighs his words carefully and has rarely made an out-of-turn statement in the party, clarified on Tuesday that regardless of who became CM, ‘Kejriwal will be responsible for fulfilling all the promises’ of the party in Punjab.

Watch What Else Is Making News:

It was only on late Wednesday afternoon, that Delhi’s CM cleared the air at a rally in Patiala, saying that if AAP wins in Punjab, it will have ‘a CM who is from Punjab and not from Pakistan or London.’ Kejriwal, it appears, wanted his political opponents to level as many allegations against him and be able to disprove them at a public platform.

While it is evident that AAP does not want to upset the caste equations or fuel an internal feud among key Sikh leaders in Punjab by announcing a CM candidate, several top AAP leaders have argued over the past 24 hours that Kejriwal had never been keen on being CM in Punjab. Lobbyists in the party might have misled the media into thinking that Kejriwal was best suited for the post and to run the government of a full state unlike in Delhi where he has been caught in an endless game of back and forth with the Lieutenant Governor, but Kejriwal himself has never fancied the post.

Leaders close to Kejriwal give several reasons why he has never considered taking up the CM’s post in Punjab. “Punjab has not seen a non-Sikh CM in the last five decades. To begin with, Punjab CM should ideally be a Sikh and there is no dearth of strong Sikh faces in the party. Secondly, it has been decided that AAP will contest Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh in December. Then there are the municipal polls in Delhi around May this year. How will Kejriwal go to the electorate and seek votes if he keeps switching as CM from one state to another?” asks a top party functionary.

“Sonia Gandhi has been far more powerful as the party chief than Dr Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister. So if AAP wins in Goa and Punjab, Kejriwal will have two CMs reporting to him. As the party goes to polls in both the states, Kejriwal is the undisputed face of the party,” explained another senior party leader.

Party leaders maintain that Kejriwal is unlikely to give up the CM’s post in Delhi which keeps him at the centre of national politics. “As long as he is Delhi CM, he is in direct interface with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Be it the anti-demonetisation campaign or any of the serious allegations against the BJP-led Centre, Kejriwal has been at the forefront each time. AAP singlehandedly took on Modi over demonetisation, particularly at a time when the Congress’s campaign fizzled out as it failed to bring the Opposition together. If Kejriwal manages to keep the ball rolling, he could well emerge as the face of the Opposition in the 2019 general elections,” said a close Kejriwal aide.

So it seems as if Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh and the SAD-BJP leaders in Punjab who hurled allegations against Kejriwal, repeatedly tagging him on Twitter, have jumped the gun. After setting the record straight in Patiala, it looked like Kejriwal had the last laugh, at least this time.