New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is “prepared” to face President’s rule in Delhi but has no plan to replace Arvind Kejriwal as chief minister (CM), at least until the Lok Sabha elections, party leaders have told ThePrint, amid the BJP’s growing chorus on a “constitutional crisis” in the capital following the CM’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the excise policy case.
The understanding among top AAP leaders is that the calls for Kejriwal’s resignation are aimed at “forcing” the party to bring a change at the top. The party has also put Lieutenant Governor (L-G) V.K. Saxena’s statement that “Delhi will not be run from jail” in the same bracket.
“The BJP and the Centre are trying to intimidate us with such statements. There is a concerted attempt to force our hand by constantly referring to the possibility of imposition of President’s Rule. But we feel that they will actually not make that move. They are wary of its potential political blowback,” a top AAP leader told ThePrint.
This impression is based on two counts: the AAP leadership feels that the BJP is acutely aware that any such step (President’s Rule) will hurt it politically, and secondly, it would not be easy to establish a strong legal ground for bringing down a popularly elected government when the CM is far from getting convicted in the case.
On 31 March, the INDIA alliance will hold a rally in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, where the arrests of Kejriwal and former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren will figure on the agenda. Apart from host AAP, leaders of 12 opposition parties, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party MP Rahul Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) chief Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena (UBT), Soren’s wife Kalpana Soren and the Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’Brien are expected to address the rally.
“Even if they invoke Article 239AB, it is unlikely that they will do so ahead of the Lok Sabha election. Kejriwal’s arrest has galvanised not just AAP workers and supporters, but has also not gone down well with people on the fence. Legally too, the Centre will not be on a strong footing. President’s Rule, after all, is not beyond the scope of judicial review,” the AAP leader said.
Article 239AB states that the President of India, on receipt of a report from the L-G or otherwise, may dissolve the Delhi assembly upon being satisfied that a situation has arisen in which the administration of Delhi cannot be carried out in accordance with Article 239AA, which is the constitutional provision that deals with the governance structure of the capital.
The President may also do so if it is necessary or expedient “for the proper administration of the National Capital Territory”, the law states.
So far, L-G Saxena has not sent any report to the President through the Ministry of Home Affairs but is keeping a close watch on the developments, according to sources in his office.
AAP sources said that while the party is in no mood to effect any change at the top at the moment, it may reconsider its position after the Lok Sabha elections, “if the situation demands so”.
“That is the case because the AAP burnt its hands by quitting the government and inviting President’s Rule in 2014. It is another matter that the party came back stronger in 2015, but that required us to apologise to the people of Delhi. So people may question it if we allow the assembly to dissolve when there is an option to replace the CM. Letting go of a government is easier said than done. But that situation, if at all, may emerge after the Lok Sabha polls,” said the AAP leader mentioned earlier.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva has said that Delhi is facing a “constitutional” crisis due to the arrest of Kejriwal — the first sitting CM to have been put behind bars. The party’s North-East Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari has questioned the “orders” issued by Kejriwal from the custody of the ED.
“Can Delhi be run from jail? He (Kejriwal) is indulging in needless drama. There is no legal sanctity of the orders he is purportedly issuing from ED custody when his ministers are not even allowed to meet him,” Sachdeva told the media.
Tiwari said that Kejriwal would have stepped down, elevating some other leader to the CM’s post, “if he had the bare minimum respect for the people who elected him to power”.
The AAP has said that Kejriwal, who was arrested on 21 March, has so far issued two orders: one relating to resolving Delhi’s water issues, and a second about addressing shortages of medicines and diagnostic tests at the city’s dispensaries and hospitals. While in ED custody, Kejriwal is allowed to meet his lawyers, wife Sunita and personal assistant Bibhav Kumar.
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Kejriwal rejects all charges
On Thursday, the Delhi High Court dismissed a PIL that sought the removal of Kejriwal as CM, saying there is no scope for judicial interference in the case and that if there is a constitutional failure, the lieutenant governor and the President can act.
Hours later, a special court extended Kejriwal’s ED custody till 1 April following a hearing in which the AAP chief rejected all charges against him and accused the ED of running an “extortion racket”.
Speaking to ThePrint, AAP leaders played down suggestions that running the government from jail was impractical due to logistical reasons, if not legal.
“The Model Code of Conduct is already in force. The cabinet has no pressing reasons to meet. The civil services panel chaired by the CM that is authorised to transfer and post bureaucrats in the Delhi administration hardly meets in any case,” said a top AAP leader, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Former Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and former Delhi home minister Satyendar Jain are also incarcerated. While Sisodia and Singh are in jail in connection with the same excise policy case, Jain was arrested in a separate money laundering case.
These arrests have created a vacuum in the top rung of the AAP, which has formed three successive governments in Delhi since 2013, and rose to power in Punjab in 2022, also the year when it registered modest gains in the BJP’s pocket borough of Gujarat.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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Although BJP is upping the ante against AAP saying constitutional crisis in Delhi, they are really scared about the political fallout.