For AAP and BJP, Delhi’s politics now a ‘wait-and-watch game’

“The top-most leadership of the party is taking legal opinion on several aspects – especially in relation to the Constitutionality of a Chief Minister running the government of a Union Territory from jail. We have reason to believe that the CM and the AAP also know this and are just trying to buy time to hand over the mantle,” a BJP source said.

The BJP source added, “The ED’s arrest — which was purely procedural — has come at a time when there is no succession plan in terms of leadership within the AAP and it is slipping into organisational disarray. While it is for the courts to decide on Kejriwal’s bail, or whether he can run the city from jail, someone will have to succeed him either as CM or as AAP convener if not both.”

The AAP has consistently maintained that Kejriwal will run the government from Tihar jail and that there is no plan to change the Delhi Chief Minister or the party chief.

A senior BJP leader said that while the CM would be unable to perform his duties as per Article 239AA of the Constitution, the GNCTD Act and the Transaction of Business Rules — each of which forms an interlinked chain of procedures for the administration of Delhi – the ED’s case against the AAP per se also made his position as its convener legally untenable, not only for him but anyone else.

Though his wife Sunita — who is gradually surfacing more in public but not at AAP protests — is being called upon by senior leaders of INDIA bloc parties since Kejriwal’s arrest on Thursday and is being seen as his successor, the BJP, sources said, was awaiting her elevation “in any role” as keenly as that of “anyone else.”

“The CM stepping down, which will necessitate a bye-election within six months, will be tough for the AAP not only to negotiate, but to even plan given that the party’s entire top leadership is behind bars and has no cadre or feet on the ground. If he (Kejriwal) chooses his wife as successor, the AAP will fall prey to dynastic politics — a tag which we will not let it erase. If he doesn’t, it may not be a strong replacement,” a leader said.

“On the other hand, with the AAP already in organisational disarray and consisting of several two-time, even three-time, MLAs with their own personal ambitions, any new leadership emerging at the helm of the party will cause more discomfort to those who have been passed over in the past, triggering an exodus from it,” the leader added.