‘Stopping not an option’: Pinning hopes on SC, AAP enters peak survival mode

WITH ITS eyes set, with much hope, on the Supreme Court with regard to the fate of its national convener Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP is, in the meantime, operating at peak survival mode, according to insiders.

A senior AAP leader said the party, which has most of its firsttier leadership behind bars, was seeking to deftly traverse the line between political survival and political activity ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. While the Delhi CM’S wife, Sunita, continued to remain in the shadows as far as its daily activities were concerned, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and Delhi Ministers such as Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj had stepped up and would continue to lead its activities for the foreseeable future — especially if Kejriwal remained behind bars.

“There is a view within the party that there is no harm in Sun it aji being handed there ins of the party till the CM returns, but a decision on it is yet to be taken with finality; till then, other senior leaders will take it forward,” a senior AAP leader said.

“BJP'S objective is clear – stalling the AAP’S Lok Sabha election campaign...we are aware we are under attack and stopping is not an option,” said another leader.

Sources said that in her meetings with MLAS and councillors Sun it a has said repeatedly that she is just the cm’ s messenger and not his replacement. Singh, on Tuesday, met Mann as well as other AAP leaders in Punjab.

Singh and Mann are, on Wednesday, scheduled to meet Kejriwal at Tihar Jail where they were likely to discuss both the organisational and administrative way forward for the AAP and its government with the party’s convener.

Sources said the Punjab CM was scheduled to travel to Assam, where at is hi has been holding fort for the last two days, for the AAP’S political bid in the state where it is contesting on two seats.

Sources said the party had already evolved a system where its senior and most visible leaders had been given separate organisational responsibilities. For instance, while Singh was headed to Chandigarh, Bharadwaj was sent to stand by the party’s INDIA bloc ally, the Trinamool Congress, as it sm psst aged a protest outside them an dir marg police station on Tuesday morning. the tm cl ea der shave petitioned the Election Commission, demanding that the heads of various Central investigating agencies be changed. “We want the EC to take an impartial stand on the issue... We were on a 24-hour dharna...” TMC MP Dola Sen told the media after the protest ended around 4.30pm.

Express (Clockwise, from top left) AAP leaders Atishi, Sanjay Singh, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Bhagwant Mann.