Months before Delhi Assembly elections are set to take place, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has suffered a serious setback with the resignation of prominent leader and minister Kailash Gahlot. Though rumours about Gahlot’s departure had been circulating since the Lok Sabha elections, his exit has intensified uncertainty within the party.
Gahlot, who formerly held key positions in the areas of IT, WCD, Home, Administrative Reforms, and Transport, is reportedly planning to join the BJP in the near future and run for the Assembly elections from his current seat of Najafgarh. According to AAP sources, the departure of the senior minister and two-time MLA, who was also a major backroom operator for the party, was a blow since it would sway Jaat voters in the Assembly elections and make it more difficult for the party to implement an important welfare program.
Gahlot resigned from the party, citing “awkward” circumstances surrounding the CM home restoration, “political agenda,” “controversy,” and “AAP’s constant fight against the Centre and less focus on fulfilling promises made to people.” However, according to AAP sources, he had been dissatisfied and disgusted with the party’s senior leadership for a while, particularly after he was passed up and Atishi was elevated to the position of chief minister, taking over crucial responsibilities that he had held, including revenue and law.
“Resentment between him and the party started last year after former Deputy CM (Manish Sisodia) went to jail and six portfolios such as Finance, PWD, Revenue, and Power fell vacant. Initially, he was given the crucial responsibility of handling Finance and a Budget presentation was given to him. But after Sisodia and Satyender Jain’s portfolios fell vacant, the party selected Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj as the new ministers in the party and all the portfolios Sisodia held were given to Atishi,” said an AAP leader.
“After Atishi, a first-time MLA, was promoted with responsibility of important portfolios, Gahlot who is the experienced and senior minister in the Delhi Cabinet felt that he was relegated to the backseat,” said another leader.
Some noted that Gahlot was perceived as becoming close to Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, who accompanied Gahlot to a number of Transport Department engagements. The L-G rejected Kejriwal’s nomination of Atishi to hoist the flags at Chhatrasal Stadium on Independence Day in his absence in August, instead proposing Gahlot, stating that “the Home Minister will hoist the flags as per protocol.” According to reports, this did not sit well with the AAP leadership.
Following his detention in March, former chief minister and AAP national convener Kejriwal found himself at the centre of attention when the ED called him to testify in the Delhi excise policy case.
His name appeared in the detention application for Kejriwal filed by the investigative agency. It stated that Vijay Nair, the party’s communications in-charge and someone the ED accused of being a major player in the alleged scam, was residing in Gahlot’s government house in Delhi’s Civil Lines. The BJP’s claim of anomalies in the contracts awarded for the maintenance of 1,000 low-floor air-conditioned buses was another shadow hanging over him. A committee that was established by Lt. Governor Anil Baijal at the time had identified a number of shortcomings.
Within the AAP, there were rumours that Gahlot might leave the party and join the BJP around the time of Kejriwal’s incarceration. But after Sisodia and Kejriwal were released on bail, he remained in place and became more visible. In addition to being present outside Tihar Jail to greet the two top leaders when they left, he was spotted at all party gatherings and demonstrations. Even after the important portfolios of Law, Revenue, and Vigilance were taken away from him and handed over to Atishi, he pledged his allegiance to Kejriwal, calling himself the “Hanuman of Lord Ram (Kejriwal)” and stating that he would work for the betterment of “Kejriwal’s Ram Rajya”.
“But, he was dissatisfied after the reshuffling of the portfolio, when Kejriwal resigned and Atishi took over,” said an AAP insider. “He had a rift with Kejriwal for a very long time but things between the two settled in the past couple of years.”
The AAP is worried that Gahlot’s departure may hinder a number of important projects. He was ignoring the “Mahila Samman Rashi” initiative, which was a major statement made by the Delhi government in this year’s budget and was set to be the focal point of the AAP’s campaign for the Assembly election.
Women who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to receive Rs 1,000 per month under the initiative. Government insiders claim that Gahlot has been meeting with authorities on a number of occasions to request that they expedite the implementation of the plan.
The 50-year-old was also the brain behind several important and top schemes such as “Pink Pass”, the “Mukhyamantri Tirath Yatra Yojana”, the “Electric Vehicle Policy”, and the introduction of bus marshals and hi-tech security system in buses for the safety of women, and getting more woman bus drivers. Gahlot, as Transport Minister, was also credited with starting the electric bus revolution and electrification of bus depots in the national capital, instrumental in getting over 1,000 e-buses inducted into the city’s ageing bus fleet.
One of the few AAP politicians who was born and raised in Delhi is Gahlot. He is from a family of farmers and hails from the village of Mitraon. After graduating from Delhi University, he practiced law at the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court, where he served as a member executive of the Bar Association of the High Court from 2005 to 2007.
He became the Jaat face of the AAP after joining the party in 2015. He won Najafgarh by a slim margin of 1,550 votes that same year after receiving the Assembly poll ticket. In 2020, he would win the seat once more by more than 6,000 votes. He oversaw a trust in his father’s name that educated Najafgarh’s youth before to being appointed Cabinet Minister.
