Delhi : With the  Enforcement Directorate (ED) tightening its grip on the top leadership of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi and the ruling AAP fearing the possible arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi is likely to witness a leadership crisis very soon. With the CM not denying his possible arrest over the issue and even holding a referendum in the capital on whether he can run his government from Tihar jail or not, people in Delhi are wondering who will lead Delhi in the future.

The Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal skipped the second summons for appearing in the liquor policy scam case investigated by the Enforcement Directorate. Though the chief minister skipped the summons and left for the 10-day Vipassana meditation camp, it is a known fact that Mr. Kejriwal can only issue the summons three times before facing a possible non-bailable arrest warrant.

If Mr Kejriwal is arrested, who will lead the ruling Aam Aadmi Party in next year’s general elections? The ruling Aam Aadmi Party is facing a tough time after most of its leaders are facing corruption and court charges. Whether former deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh, former Delhi minister Satyendar Jain, etc. – the absence of the party leadership raises the question of who will be able to hold this party together.

On the other hand, the BJP still lacks a local face as it had before the rise of Arvind Kejriwal and Sheila Dikshit. In the last 30 years, the BJP had won a majority in the Delhi Assembly in 1993 under the leadership of Madan Lal Khurana. The party had prominent local leaders, be it Madan Lal Khurana or Sahib Singh Verma, but since then the party has failed to repeat that magic in assembly elections since 1993. In 2013, under the leadership of Dr Harsh Vardhan, the party came very close to winning the elections with 32 seats but could not form a government. Since then, the party has won barely more than three seats in the 2015 assembly election and eight in the 2020 assembly election. It seems that the national leadership of the BJP has failed to nurture local leadership in the last 25 years. However, the BJP won all seven seats in the 2014 and 2019 parliamentary elections, but that is to the credit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and not the local leadership.

The current BJP in Delhi may have some prominent faces like MPs Manoj Tiwari, Parvesh Verma and Gautam Gambir, but will they be able to put forward an alternative for Delhi in the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections in 2025? Only the future will tell.

While the Congress, which ruled Delhi for 15 years under the leadership of the charismatic Sheila Dikshit, struggled not only with leadership problems but also with the existence of the national capital, the party failed to win even a single seat in Delhi in the 2015 and 2020 elections. And even in the 2013 elections, the party won only eight seats in the Delhi Assembly, while in the 2014 and 2019 general elections; the results remained the same for the grand old party. The party has changed several leaders since the demise of Sheila Dikshit, but none of them could change its fortunes. However, the party is now banking on Ajay Makan and Lovely to strengthen its vote base in the capital for the upcoming assembly elections and the Delhi assembly elections in 2025.