NEW DELHI: Deputy chief minister
Manish Sisodia's arrest in the alleged excise policy scam - though widely speculated by many, including
chief minister Arvind Kejriwal - has come as a big jolt to the Aam Aadmi Party.
Handling 18 of the 33 government departments, Sisodia was not only literally carrying the entire government on his shoulders, but his able handling of the dispensation had also given the chief minister a leverage to focus on the expansion of the party beyond Delhi and Punjab.
What makes Manish Sisodia so important?
In comparison to Sisodia, the other ministers in Kejriwal's cabinet - Kailash Gahlot, Gopal Rai, Imran Hussain and Raaj Kumar Anand - were largely under-utilised. While Gahlot has been handling six portfolios, including transport and revenue, Anand has four, Rai three and Hussain just two.
If Kejriwal never held any portfolio and managed to concentrate on party politics, it was because his deputy was carrying forward his government's programme of providing good schools and hospitals, apart from looking after the finances, planning and other crucial sectors.
When former health minister Satyendar Jain was arrested in a money laundering case in May last year, Kejriwal could afford not to replace him with another minister because he had Sisodia. The CM assigned the entire work being done by Jain to his deputy. With Sisodia's arrest, would Kejriwal look for another minister to hand over his departments? Or would he replace him or Jain with a new face? Answers to these questions would only be known in the next few days.
Sources said Gahlot had attended all the meetings called by Sisodia to discuss budget and other important projects since February 19 when the latter was first called by CBI for questioning. A senior party functionary added that when Kejriwal did not replace Jain -- who has now been in judicial custody for almost nine months -- in the Cabinet, removing Sisodia to bring in a new face was not likely.
"It is too early to comment on these things," said an AAP functionary. "We will move a bail application immediately. If Manish ji gets bail in the next few days, the question of giving his portfolios to somebody else would not arise," the functionary added.
However, if the deputy CM remains in jail for 7-8 months, as feared by both Sisodia himself and Kejriwal, the CM will have to engage in long-term planning.
Since the arrest of Sisodia was widely speculated, another functionary said a lot of discussions on the working of the party as well as the government had taken place between the CM and his deputy in the last few days.
"The duo had long meetings in the past few days, and I am sure they must have prepared a road map. But nobody else is privy to that information," said the second functionary.
The first and foremost challenge before the government now is who will present the budget for financial year 2023-24 in the assembly. Ever since AAP formed the government in 2015, Sisodia has been tasked with presenting the budget every year. Sources said he had held several meetings in the last one week and finalised the document.
"If Manish ji does not get bail anytime soon, the chief minister will have to give the finance department to some other minister, so that the budget could be presented in time. It could even be him who takes charge of it," said the first functionary.
Sources said Kejriwal might have to cut down on his expansion spree and personally look after a few departments now.
Among key projects that could be affected include the launch of various employment-oriented schemes announced by the AAP government last year, many of which are said to have reached the stage of implementation. Also projects like cleaning of the Yamuna, 24-hour water supply and piped network in every household, construction of new school buildings and schools of excellence, new hospitals, e-health card for citizens, free pathological tests for senior citizens and redevelopment of roads may also get impacted as Sisodia was directly monitoring these.
With eight G20-related events, including the main summit, scheduled to be held in the capital and the Public Works Department having been assigned the responsibility of improving roads, flyovers and footpaths, Sisodia's absence may be felt in a big way.
With a constant ongoing tussle with the lieutenant governor on a host of governance issues and division of power, which takes elected dispensation's time and energy, the AAP government is likely to miss the presence of the deputy CM even more.
Another area that may feel the jolt is AAP's expansion plan at a time when the Lok Sabha elections are just over a year away and Kejriwal is trying to build a third front by taking many other regional players on board. The year 2023 is crucial as several states are going to polls.
According to party functionaries, Kejriwal had planned visits to Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in the coming weeks. With Sisodia's absence, he may just get tied down in the Capital.