How Kejriwal’s absence could be felt in Delhi’s governance

Kejriwal, instead, had entrusted significant departments such as power, water and the Public Works Department to Satyendar Jain before the reins of more than a dozen government departments like education were handed over to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.

While Jain was arrested in 2022, Sisodia was sent behind bars in the liquor policy case last year.

The baton was handed over to Atishi who currently holds around 14 government departments in addition to any others which have not been assigned to any other Cabinet members.

Kejriwal also guided the government during several waves of the pandemic, which emerged in the aftermath of the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots.

He also led a three-day sit-in protest inside Raj Niwas – the office-cum-residence of the L-G – along with his cabinet colleagues over installation of CCTVs in the city in 2018, and addressed a large gathering over a ‘one-time settlement scheme’ for water bills last month.

He was, and remained, the face of the AAP’s political ambitions within and beyond the Capital. While he led from the front as the Delhi government took on successive attacks on various aspects of its administration in the city through three Lt-Governors, the party formed a government in Punjab under his watch after it ousted the BJP from the MCD after 15 years in power.

Among the protesters was 40-year-old Dharna Sethi, a party worker. “What is the hurry that the Narendra Modi government wants to get the CM arrested even as the matter is ongoing in court…this shows that he is scared,” she said. Another worker, Ekta (35), said that the arrest would backfire on the BJP. “The arrest will only act in the party’s favour in the elections. It only goes on to show the dictatorial nature of the BJP,” she added.