The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Sunita Kejriwal to be face of AAP campaign across country
RETIRED INDIAN Revenue Service ( IRS) officer and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita will be the face of the Aam Aadmi Party’s ( AAP’S) Lok Sabha campaign across the country in the absence of her husband, the party formally announced on Friday.
The development comes days after the AAP gave Sunita her “first political responsibility”. According to insiders, it indicates that a move to let her take on “larger organisational responsibilities” is in the works.
Senior AAP leader Atishi told reporters that 58- year- old Sunita, who had chosen to remain in the shadows as far as party activities were concerned for more than a decade that Kejriwal held its reins, will formally hit the ground starting Saturday. “Sunita ji will enter the fray to seek support from the people of Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab by campaigning for AAP candidates. This will begin tomorrow; Sunita Kejriwal ji will lead a roadshow in East Delhi... She will seek blessings on behalf of Kejriwal ji from the people; On April 28, she will lead a roadshow in West Delhi,” she said.
Designated ‘ Star Campaigner no. 2’ on a list of 40 individuals for the party’s Lok Sabha campaign in Gujarat earlier this month, her elevation as the face of the AAP’S campaign across the country, according to insiders, is her biggest “political responsibility” so far. Since the CM’S arrest on March 21 in the Delhi excise policy case, Sunita has been part of two IN
DIA Bloc rallies -- the first on March 31 at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan and the second at the ‘ Nyaya Ulgulan Rally’ organised by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha ( JMM) in Ranchi on April 19.
As The Indian Express had reported, the AAP sees Sunita as an opportunity to keep its ranks consolidated in the absence of her husband and its sole option as far as the way forward is concerned. When Sanjay Singh was in jail, we used to go and meet his wife because she was our connection with him... Similarly, the people of Delhi want to meet her ( Sunita) because she is their connection to Kejriwal... she will campaign for the party in all four seats being contested by the AAP ( South, West, East and New Delhi),” an AAP insider said.
According to another AAP insider, the chorus to progressively make Sunita the face of the party in the absence of her husband was growing with no relief in sight for the party’s convener “at least till the Lok Sabha elections were on”. “We expect more clarity on her role in the party’s organisation after the results,” the insider said.