Aam Aadmi Party now in a new pack

Reporters visiting the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) office in Delhi in 2015 would find Atishi sitting with young MIT interns and IIT graduates poring over their laptops. An adviser to Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia then, Atishi is said to have added the know-hows to all the education initiatives of the Delhi government.
On Tuesday, Atishi was named the successor to Arvind Kejriwal, who stepped down as the chief minister of Delhi. From an adviser in 2015 to an MLA in 2020 and chief minister in 2024, Atishi’s rise has been phenomenal.
“She is the most-trusted of the top two AAP leaders, Kejriwal and Sisodia, and has proved herself all the way,” a senior journalist who has covered the Aam Aadmi Party since 2013 told India Today Digital.
It isn’t just the trust that Kejriwal reposes in her or her mettle, it is a combination of factors that has propelled Atishi to the CM’s chair at this critical juncture for the AAP.
Kejriwal and Sisodia are just out of jail and over half of his Cabinet ministers were behind bars on corruption charges. The clean packaging of the AAP, a party that rose from an anti-corruption movement, has been tainted over the last few years.
That is why Kejriwal is trying to repackage the Aam Aadmi Party with a fresh face in the CM’s chair.
And Atishi ticks all the right boxes. A woman, well-educated, urban face, handled portfolios, and is free from any corruption charge.
“The choice of Atishi as the chief minister could turn the election in AAP’s favour. She doesn’t have any corruption taint and has always been far from controversy. Kejriwal as the CM would have faced questions from the people on liquorgate,” said the journalist.
Delhi is slated to hold an Assembly election by February 2025. Kejriwal has sought that the election be advanced to November and held alongside the Maharashtra and Jharkhand polls.
Two facts about AAP that are obvious but need to be stated. There is no infighting in AAP, and Kejriwal’s decisions aren’t questioned by partymen.
AAP leaders made it clear on Tuesday that Kejriwal would return as the Chief Minister.
For now, the need to have Atishi in the CM’s chair was to disassociate the AAP government from the excise policy case.
While Atishi can highlight the Delhi government’s achievements during campaigning, Kejriwal can tackle the political onslaught. It will also be difficult for the BJP to attack Atishi, who has a clean image.
Kejriwal has made a well-calculated move.
“If AAP loses the election, he won’t be blamed. If the party wins, he will return as the CM. There will be no one who will stand in his way,” said the journalist who has seen the dynamics of the party for over a decade now.
It was Kejriwal who proposed her name as the CM, and it was accepted by the AAP legislators. Atishi isn’t a mass leader and replacing her after the election won’t be difficult.
What is actually different now is that, after Congress’s Sheila Dikshit, Atishi is the chief minister with portfolios.
Since 2013, Arvind Kejriwal, although the chief minister, didn’t handle a single portfolio. Sisodia, whom Atishi used to assist, had the responsibility for the bulk of the departments.
She took charge of several important departments, including finance and education, after the duo were jailed.
However, even Atishi knows who the real power rests with. She made that clear in her first remarks as the Delhi CM on Tuesday.
“Delhi has only one Chief Minister and that is Arvind Kejriwal… I will work for the next few months towards the goal of bringing back Kejriwal as Delhi Chief Minister,” she said.
Though the CM changes, it is clear with whom the actual power remains. The content and the core of the party remains the same, it’s just that Atishi will be on the cover of a repackaged AAP, the packs of which will be clean to the eyes.