Following the major setback in the Delhi Assembly elections where it lost heavily to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Aam Aadmi Party has announced a reshuffle in the party leadership on Friday (21st March). The organisational changes were decided during the meeting of the party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) held at the residence of the party supremo and former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday (16th March).
The changes were announced by the party’s general secretary Sandeep Pathak who has been given charge of the party in Chhattisgarh.
As per the new arrangement, former Delhi Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj (who once tried to demonstrate he can hack an EVM, inviting ridicule) will be heading the party’s Delhi Unit, replacing party leader Gopal Rai. Bhardwaj is a three-time MLA from the Greater Kailash assembly constituency in Delhi and has served as the Health Minister of Delhi for 2 years. However, he lost his seat in the recent assembly elections in Delhi. Gopal Rai has been given the responsibility of the Gujarat unit of the party instead, while Durgesh Pathak has been made the co-incharge. The Goa unit of the party will be headed by Pankaj Gupta.
Senior AAP leader and former Deputy CM of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, who is out on bail in the Delhi liquor excise policy scam, has been given the charge of the Punjab unit of the party. Senior party leader Satyendra Jain has been made co-in-charge of the Punjab unit. Notably, both Sisodia and Satyendra Jain are out on bail and are facing serious charges.
After losing Delhi Assembly elections, Punjab is now the only state where Aam Aadmi Party is in power. Raghav Chaddha, who represents the party in Rajya Sabha, has been relieved from the post of co-in charge in Punjab. AAP leader Mehraj Malik has been appointed as the party president in Jammu and Kashmir.
AAP national secretary Pankaj Gupta was re-elected to the post which he has been holding for two terms now. Rajya Sabha MP ND Gupta was also re-elected as the party Treasurer.
Arvind Kejriwal was retained as AAP’s national convenor yet again despite several setbacks
Notably, Arvind Kejriwal was appointed as the party’s national convenor once again, despite having gone to jail under corruption charges, and having to relinquish his CM Post during previous AAP Government in Delhi. Kejriwal even lost his own seat during the recent Delhi elections as public totally lost faith in him, but apparently, not the Aam Aadmi Party.
“The meeting reinforced their belief in the fact that he (Kejriwal) is the most popular leader of the party, considering that he won the public’s mandate thrice as the Chief Minister of Delhi”, the party statement said.
Actually, the party’s original constitution was amended in January 2021 to change the clause restricting a member from holding a position in the party for more than 2 successive terms. “No member will hold the same post as an office-bearer for more than two consecutive terms of three years each,” the original party constitution stated. However, after the 2021 amendment, the duration of the term has been increased to 5 years and the restriction on the number of terms for office bearers has been removed.
Kejriwal’s second term as the party’s national convenor was supposed to end in April 2019 but it was extended in 2018 ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and the Delhi Assembly elections. The party meeting was then postponed in 2020 given the pandemic. In the next meeting held in 2021, the constitution was amended.
