3 min readNew DelhiFeb 27, 2026 01:38 PM IST
First published on: Feb 27, 2026 at 01:38 PM IST
On September 17, 2024, anti-corruption crusader-turned-Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal triggered shock waves by announcing his resignation from the post. With the Delhi elections a few months away, the move was billed as an “agnipariksha (trial by fire)” for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its chief, but was in fact a political manoeuvre soon after Kejriwal’s release from prison in the excise policy case.
It did not make much of a difference as the AAP was voted out of power on the heels of a high-voltage BJP campaign that projected the party, and Kejriwal himself, as the epitome of the very corruption they claimed to be fighting. However, on Friday, the AAP and its chief appeared set to regain that moral ground that had powered their rise and what they feared may have been lost as a Delhi court let off Kejriwal, former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, and 21 others in the CBI probe in the excise policy case.
For a party whose political roots lie in an anti-corruption movement, the exoneration of Kejriwal and most of its senior leadership is more than a shot in the arm. It is a reinstatement of its identity.
The BJP had struck at the very core of this identity to chip away at the party’s moral foundation, even as daily run-ins with the office of Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor furthered the narrative of an administrative paralysis seemingly meant to underline that the AAP government did not have what it took to run the city.
While allegations ranging from scams in the construction of school buildings and hospitals, to water supply and in the power sector were levelled against the government during its 11-year tenure, it was not until the allegations became sharper and more specific against AAP leaders that the political tide began to turn in the city.
From Satyendra Jain to Manish Sisodia and finally to Kejriwal himself — who was accused of looking the other way when it came to the construction of a “palatial home” just like he did when it came to alleged loopholes that would generate financial kickbacks for the AAP through the excise policy — the political dominoes fell one after the other based on investigation into one scam or another.
Going forward, the development will only strengthen an AAP looking to broaden its national horizons even as it seeks to retain the only other state remaining in its kitty, Punjab. It is expected to have a positive impact on the party’s organisation in Delhi, where Kejriwal is likely to return to the political spotlight “with his head held high” as he had sought to while announcing his resignation, and add to organisation-building activity in states such as Goa, where the party is eyeing a change in government.
The party’s biggest political payday could emerge from Gujarat, where Kejriwal is said to be personally invested in building the party’s organisation front he ground up “just like the BJP’s”, according to party insiders.
In national politics, with several of the INDIA bloc’s constituents not in agreement with the Congress on many issues, the AAP’s position will now have more heft with Kejriwal back with a spring in his step.