AAP Without Kejriwal on the Streets: A Party Adrift in Delhi?
Image credit X.com @arvindkejriwal
With AAP out of power in Delhi, questions grow over Arvind Kejriwal’s political silence, and strategic retreat
By SIDHARTH MISHRA
New Delhi, February 21, 2026 — It’s been a year since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was voted out of power in Delhi. Despite Delhi being a half-state (a Union Territory), its status as the national Capital gave the party and its leader Arvind Kejriwal the levers to wield political influence across the country.
During the 10 years that he was in power in Delhi, Kejriwal focussed on politics (and least on governance). During these 10 years in office, he often treated Delhi less as a site of routine governance and more as a launchpad for national politics. The capital became a political theatre from which he projected himself as a challenger to the entrenched national parties.
This helped him spread his party’s presence specially in Punjab, where it came to form government with comfortable majority in its second attempt. It also did create rumblings in the states like Gujarat, Goa and some other smaller states too. For a brief period, Kejriwal appeared to be the most credible non-Congress, non-BJP figure capable of stitching together an alternative narrative.
A victory for the BJP in February 2025 in the Delhi assembly polls, however, meant that Kejriwal as a leader and his party were pushed down several rungs in the pecking order of the opposition benches. Surprisingly, Kejriwal did not just exit the Chief Minister’s office in Delhi Secretariat but has also gone into some kind of a political hibernation.
Contrary to general speculation that he would actively participate in his party’s government in Punjab or enter the Rajya Sabha, Kejriwal for the past one year has largely remained aloof confining himself to his new home in Lutyens’ Delhi, allotted under former CM quota or in Chandigarh.
Within his party there are two opinions about him ‘missing in action’. While some say that he was involved in self-introspection, others feel that he has lost interest in politics, perhaps fatigued by years of confrontation with institutions and relentless scrutiny. One of these explanations appears increasingly plausible as months pass without a clear sign of revival.
On the surface he has somewhat delegated control over the party organisation to senior leaders, who have been deployed in different states. While former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and former Delhi minister Satyendar Jain have shifted base to Punjab, former Delhi CM Atishi Marlena has been looking after Goa, former Delhi minister Gopal Rai has been stationed in Gujarat, and Delhi has been assigned to another former Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj.
The effectiveness of this strategy is still to be felt. If Delhi were a case study, despite a very aggressive and cantankerous social media campaign against the Rekha Gupta government, perception about party’s presence is that of receding than regaining lost turf. Without Kejriwal’s personal involvement, the party’s responses have lacked the urgency and credibility they once carried.
In the other states, the problem is different. The state units there resist the interference of ‘out of work’ leaders in their affairs. This problem is especially acute in Punjab where the two tallest Ministers from the erstwhile government, Manish Sisodia and Satyender Jain are permanently parked. Kejriwal too makes frequent visits and has long stays.
Whatever the deployment strategy, the fact, however, remains that in public perception Kejriwal’s long absence from Delhi’s scenario is being viewed with some concern. He has made limited appearances in the Capital post his party’s defeat. He made one appearance at Jantar Mantar in June last year, leading a protest against the government’s demolition drive against unauthorized constructions.
His absence from the streets of Delhi has also affected his party’s presence on ground. AAP’s opposition to the Rekha Gupta government on issues such as pollution, nonpayment of the monthly Rs 2,500 ex gratia to women beneficiaries, fee hike by private schools or for that matter Janakpuri pit accident case has largely remained limited to social media and television screens.
As some say that his focus is to retain Punjab, win Goa, and expand in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. These states go to polls next year. The strategy is fine, but this should not be done by keeping aloof from Delhi, especially when the party still has a support base here and it was here that it came into existence. A setback in these states would mean a complete end of road in Delhi too.
For Kejriwal, the question is no longer about ambition but relevance. A return to active, visible politics in Delhi may be less glamorous than chasing new states, but without it, both the leader and his party risk fading from the very stage that made them what they are.
(This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are author’s own.)
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