Turning point for AAP? What Kejriwal, Sisodia clean chit in excise case means for the party, broader Opposition

However, on Friday, the AAP and its chief appeared set to regain the high ground that had powered their rise and what they feared may have been lost as a Delhi court discharged Kejriwal, former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, and 21 others in the CBI probe in the excise policy case. For a party whose political roots lie in an anti-corruption movement, the exoneration of Kejriwal and most of its senior leadership is more than a shot in the arm. It is a reinstatement of its identity.

The BJP had struck at the very core of this identity to chip away at the party’s moral foundation, even as daily run-ins with the office of Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor furthered the narrative of an administrative paralysis seemingly meant to underline that the AAP government did not have what it took to run the city.

Kejriwal broke down in front of news cameras after walking out of the court complex on Friday, and looked a changed man as he addressed the media a few hours later.

The former Delhi CM said the court verdict had lifted a heavy load from his heart and, having limited is public appearances since the Delhi loss last year, took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in his characteristically sharp tone as he accused them of going after him and his senior party colleagues because of political vendetta.

“People were saying, why did Kejriwal go mum after coming back from jail, that Kejriwal disappeared, where is Kejriwal. I am not a politician; politicians do not get affected…they have thick skin. But the only thing that I have earned in life is imandaari (honesty); when someone calls me beimaan (dishonest), it affects me,” he said.

“When I am sent to jail, taunts are showered on my family, it affects me. Kejriwal is affected. That is why I had decided, that I will not speak till I am proven innocent in front of the whole nation. Today, a major load has been taken off my heart,” he said.

From Satyendra Jain to Manish Sisodia and finally to Kejriwal himself — who was accused of looking the other way when it came to the construction of a “palatial home” just like he did when it came to alleged loopholes that would generate financial kickbacks for the AAP through the excise policy — the political dominoes had fallen one after the other based on investigation into one scam or another.

Going forward, the discharge in this case will only strengthen an AAP looking to broaden its national horizons even as it seeks to retain the only state where it remains in power, Punjab.

While the party will receive a boost in Delhi and Goa, the biggest payday could come in Gujarat, where Kejriwal is said to be personally invested in building the party’s organisation front he ground up “just like the BJP’s”, according to insiders.

In national politics, with several of the INDIA bloc’s constituents not in agreement with the Congress — including the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC in West Bengal, where both parties are not likely to come together in an alliance for the coming Assembly polls — on many issues, the AAP’s position will now have more heft with Kejriwal back with a spring in his step.

While he acknowledged the messages received from leaders of the INDIA bloc, including Tamil Nadu CM and DMK leader M K Stalin and former UP CM and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Kejriwal hit out at the Congress after its media department chief Pawan Khera insinuated he had been exonerated to damage the grand old party.

“I want to ask you: Kejriwal went to jail; did Robert Vadra go to jail? Sanjay Singh went to jail; did Rahul Gandhi go to jail? Manish Sisodia went to jail; did Sonia Gandhi ji go to jail? With what face do they even talk? The Congress just does not feel any shame,” he said, hinting that the faultlines in the broader Opposition remain and are likely to contribute to a churn in the Opposition space in the coming months.