Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's release from jail on Friday comes as a big morale booster for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which has been lurching from one crisis to another over the past several months.
A jubilant AAP gave a hero's welcome to Sisodia as he walked out of Tihar Jail after 17 months of imprisonment over the excise policy case. There is palpable relief amongst the AAP leaders and workers to find Sisodia back in their midst and the reasons are obvious.
Manish Sisodia is undoubtedly the second most important leader in the AAP after the party's national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. He has been Kejriwal's closest associate through their journey in activism and later in politics. When the AAP formed government in Delhi, he shouldered maximum responsibility of administering the capital in his capacity as deputy chief minister, letting Kejriwal focus on organisational matters and the party's plans to expand beyond Delhi.
Sisodia's work, especially as Education Minister, has especially been talked about. He is credited with transforming many of the schools run by the Delhi government into institutions that offer the same facilities as some top private schools.
With Kejriwal continuing to be behind bars, the expectation in the AAP would be for Sisodia to provide direction and hope to the party workers. He would also be expected to play a crucial role in the party's preparations for the coming Assembly polls. State elections in Haryana are just around the corner and the much more crucial polls in Delhi are only a few months away.
It is unclear at present whether Sisodia can come back as deputy chief minister because of technical hurdles since Kejriwal is in jail. However, at a time when the AAP government in Delhi has been involved in a regular confrontation with the Lt Governor's office over issues of the capital's administration, Sisodia's presence and voice would provide the AAP with much-needed heft and authority.
With Sisodia getting bail in the excise policy case, the AAP is now bound to go the people claiming vindication of its stand on the matter that it is a conspiracy launched by the Bharatiya Janata Party's government at the centre against the party and its leaders. There is also hope that Kejriwal, who was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court over the case registered against him by the Enforcement Directorate in the excise policy matter, and who continues to be in judicial custody in the case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation, would also soon walk out of jail.