The AAP Internal Conflicts: Real Winner Is 'Manish Sisodia'

In less than a month, cracks of sizable magnitude have begun to appear in the Aam Aadmi Party, posing serious questions about the party’s ability to bridge the differences among the top leadership. 

As the war over turf rages within through well-calculated leaks in the media in the absence of party convenor Arvind Kejriwal, the real question is who is the commander from his side.

The party has two well-defined factions now, one includes Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Kumar Vishwas, Navin Jaihind, Dilip Pandey, Ashutosh and Ashish Khetan, and the other includes Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav, Professor Anand Kumar, Ajit Jha, Ilyas Azmi and Mayank Gandhi. Some in the party are calling it the Right-liberal vs the Left-liberal conflict. The latter group is identified with the Left.

According to party sources, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has led a spirited battle against the Bhushan-Yadav camp while the party chief gets treated in Bangalore. While Kejriwal has diminished a lot in public perception as a man of great character and integrity after the recent developments, his deputy has grown in political influence with his control over the party and ability to marshal his resources in the time of crisis.

He is also the person who has been exposed the least. All others including Sanjay Singh, Gopal Rai, Dilip Pandey, Ashutosh and Ashish Khetan have been out in the open, sometimes being at the receiving end of the allegations, but so far Sisodia has managed to stay clear of the muck passing by.

“He (Sisodia) is the only beneficiary of the recent developments. By sidelining dissenters, he has already tightened his grip over the party. Additionally, he enjoys support of more than 50 MLAs of his party. In fact, if he so wishes he can make the position of Kejriwal difficult,’’ said a source close to the Kejriwal camp. He, however, dismissed any such possibility.

When asked if the present developments won’t affect the party’s standing among people, he said, “People have a short memory. In two-three months, all the issues will be sorted out. The party has four full years to prove itself. Sisodia is in charge of all important portfolios. If he fulfils the party’s major pre-poll promises, he will emerge as someone equal in stature to Kejriwal.”

Sisodia is the de facto chief minister as he holds important portfolios like Finance, Urban Development, Human Resource Development, Planning, Vigilance and Revenue in addition to being the deputy CM. He is “tactically concentrating on efforts to fulfil party’s promises”.

Another middle-ranking leader said that Kejriwal would be focusing on other matters such as the party’s outreach programme among people, so effectively it will be Sisodia who would be managing the show. “He would be the most important factor in Delhi’s politics besides the convenor. The others will come and go.’’ He added that since Kejriwal cannot operate alone he needs to develop a reliable top rung. There’s no better person that Sisodia to manage that.

About the tussle between Left liberals and Right liberals he said this is immaterial. “The party has identified its target voters who are the middle-middle class, lower middle class, auto rickshaw community and slum dwellers whose major concerns are cheap electricity, clean water and accommodation. They have nothing to do with any grand socialist and Marxist narratives. The fulfilments of bijli-pani and other basic requirements will satisfy them.”

Immediately after winning the Delhi election Kejriwal and Sisodia had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and made friendly gestures towards him. They would stay clear of leaning Right or Left, he added.