Atishi Singh
By G Krishna Mohan Rao*
New Delhi: Atishi Singh will need all fireworks to make an impact in Delhi. As the 43-year-old took charge as the eighth Chief Minister of Delhi on September 21, 2024, the opposition parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress Party, targeted her with critical comments by saying, “Only the face of the government has changed, and it is futile to expect any miracles in the next few months from this government”.
The confusion even within the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is also reflected in the fact that on day one, Gopal Rai, a senior minister and founding member of AAP declared that she would be CM for two months. But now, the party has been silent for early polls and is anticipating the elections in February 2025.
So far as Atishi is concerned, quite a few of her own party workers point out that she does not enjoy much support within her own Kalkaji Constituency, from where she had won by a thin margin. It was because of these reasons that when she went on a Satyagrah she chose another area and not her own Assembly segment, they claim.
The BJP has already described Atishi as a pawn in the hands of the Aam Aadmi Party supremo and her immediate predecessor, Arvind Kejriwal, and is propagating that she would be remote-controlled.
By picking her as CM, the AAP sent a strong message to the BJP, which was planning ‘Operation Lotus’.
Atishi has a brilliant academic career and she was almost a consensus choice among the senior leaders of the AAP. Kejriwal did not pick his wife, Sunita, for Chief ministership, since it would have amounted to serious charges of nepotism directed towards him.
With her leftist background, she is also considered by AAP’s top leadership as someone who would never drift towards the saffron brigade under any circumstances. She will continue to hold the 13 portfolios that she had earlier, including, Finance, Revenue, Power, Water, Public Works, and Planning.
However, the challenges galore before Atishi given the ensuing Assembly elections in Delhi where citizens would expect a better performance from the new dispensation. The Opposition has already started targeting her performance as a minister in the Kejriwal government. It claims she was unsuccessful as a minister and despite holding 13 important portfolios, she failed to address the problems of Delhi in the past one and a half years.
“Kejriwal destroyed Delhi in every possible manner in the last 10 years, and it is futile to expect his successor Atishi to do any better. Atishi had washed her hands off when Delhi got waterlogged, and people died due to drowning and electrocution,” the Leader of the Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta of the BJP, alleged.
Those who are familiar with Kejriwal’s style of functioning, also know that he is not the type who would sit next to the Chief Minister and keep silent. He would always speak his mind and thus would remain the central figure, notwithstanding whoever is the head of the government. This attitude could undermine Atishi’s status.
Moreover, Kejriwal now apparently wants to revisit his common man image. It is in this light that he perhaps decided to give up his dream house on Flagstaff Road.
The AAP is not in a good position on the ground after the Delhi liquor scam broke out. Its leaders are visibly confused and are still trying to figure out what could be the election plank and talking points in the forthcoming assembly polls. They do not know whether to ask for votes to make Kejriwal the CM again or to stand behind Atishi to give her a full term. Atishi herself stated that the party would want to see Kejriwal as the CM but the question would be asked how would that change things. What was going to be her role?
Further, the chain of command has weakened and five AAP members cross-voted in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi bodies. Some senior AAP legislators are not very happy that they have been ignored by the top leadership, and instead many first-time MLAs are being preferred on plum posts.
Another major challenge before the AAP today is to keep its Dalit vote bank intact. One of its leaders who was made a minister defected to the BJP during Parliamentary polls. Another senior leader joined the Congress Party. The existing Dalit MLAs need reassurance and unless something is done for them, things could become difficult for AAP.
The Congress Party, which marginally improved its position in the Lok Sabha polls, has adopted an aggressive posture by attacking the AAP and its policies, and simultaneously taking on the BJP.
*Senior journalist
