View: Kejriwal may shift to Chandigarh leaving Sisodia in charge in Delhi if AAP wins

A day after Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia created a stir by urging the people of Punjab to vote as if Arvind Kejriwal would be their chief minister after the Punjab assembly polls, Kejriwal himself refuted the notion. Clarifying that he neither intended to quit his position as Delhi CM nor move to Punjab if his Aam Aadmi Party formed the next government in the state, Kejriwal instead sought to project the buzz around him as a sign of nervousness within Congress and Akali Dal camps.

Such mixed messaging could be a consequence of the dilemma that Kejriwal faces. He is looking for a breakthrough in Punjab and Goa, given that as chief minister of Delhi he is hemmed in at every step by the Centre, BJP and Delhi lieutenant governor. If he were to become CM of Punjab, he would have the powers of a full-fledged chief minister. While that must be sorely tempting, a declaration to this effect now would undermine his position in Delhi when at this point there is no guarantee AAP will win Punjab.

There are other advantages of ambiguity as well. In a high voltage campaign such as Punjab both Congress and Akalis could highlight the fact that he is not only not Sikh but not even a Punjabi, and target him as an ‘outsider’. When politicians across the board are playing the Punjab vs Haryana card, AAP’s CM candidate being Haryanvi can be a liability. What could work for Kejriwal, though, is that cutting across such sectarian politics is the elite-subaltern divide, and AAP has been good at mobilising subaltern groups. Given that Punjab has the largest share of Dalits in its population with no clear political force to represent their interests, this is one segment that AAP will be targeting.

It is not essential that every party declares a CM candidate; for instance, BJP has not done so in UP. Moreover, as we have seen in these post-truth times, election statements and promises do not matter once elections have been won. Should AAP take Punjab, Kejriwal may well shift to Chandigarh leaving Sisodia in charge in Delhi. At that point Kejriwal could well say that professions of not leaving Delhi had been a jumla (idiom), as Amit Shah did on BJP’s pre-election promise to repatriate black money and refund Rs 15 lakh to every Indian.

( DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.)