Will Sunita Kejriwal replace her husband as Delhi CM?

In 2015, after the Aam Aadmi Party registered a stunning victory in the assembly polls in Delhi, its office at Patel Nagar erupted in celebration. Arvind Kejriwal, party chief and the hero of the moment, appeared on a makeshift stage in front of the office to loud cheers from supporters. As Kejriwal took the mic, the first thing he did was pull his wife Sunita Kejriwal close, put his arms around her shoulders, and introduce her on live TV.

“This is my wife,” Kejriwal said. “She would never come to the front. She was always afraid that the government would act against her. Today, I told her: ‘There is no reason to be afraid. Nobody will take action against you.’”

Sunita, then an Indian Revenue Service officer, looked embarrassed and uncomfortable. She folded her hands and smiled as her husband thanked her for being his support system. He said he would not have been able to achieve anything without her.

Earlier that day, Kejriwal’s first tweet as the poll results poured in was to thank Sunita. “Thank you Sunita for always being there,” he wrote.

The two had met at the civil service academy in Mussoorie in 1993. Kejriwal had one fine day knocked on her door and simply asked her if she would marry him. She said yes, and they got married in November 1994.

Sunita eventually took over the family’s sheet anchor role as her husband quit the IRS, become an activist and entered politics. She stayed behind the scenes, keeping the household financially afloat, and looking after Kejriwal’s elderly parents and the schooling of the couple’s two children, Harshita and Pulkit. Kejriwal was keen that the media left her alone so that she was not in any kind of trouble with the ruling dispensation.

She was commissioner of income tax at the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal when she took voluntary retirement in 2016. She did not have as much concern about Kejriwal’s politics as she had about his health. All through his arduous poll campaigns in Delhi and other states, she worried about his diabetes and whether he was having food and insulin injections on time.

After the 2013 assembly polls in Delhi, this correspondent was at the Kejriwal residence in Ghaziabad to try and get an interview with him. Kejriwal was ailing, and Sunita proved to be a formidable barrier. When I made repeated requests for the interview, she snapped: “You people care only about your story. You don’t care about Arvind. I have to care for him. You can go on waiting; there is no guarantee of an interview.”

She did, however, finally allow a meeting with Kejriwal, “strictly for five minutes”.

Sunita made her presence felt as a political spouse in the 2020 polls. She campaigned on his behalf in his assembly constituency in Delhi while he was away campaigning for all other party candidates. She interacted with women in the 2022 assembly polls in Punjab, where she emphasised the AAP’s pro-women promises.

Her public statements on X have been limited to praising the initiatives of the AAP governments in Delhi and Punjab, or reposting announcements by the party or its governments. She made it a point to stay out of the fight between the AAP and the BJP-led Union government. A rare occasion when she broke that rule was when she tweeted in 2018 to criticise Lt Governor Anil Baijal over the alleged harassment of her sister and family with regard to an alleged scam involving the public works department.

With Kejriwal in the Enforcement Directorate’s custody over his alleged role in the case related to the corruption involved in Delhi’s scrapped excise policy, Sunita has dramatically stepped up her presence in the public eye. The 58-year-old has donned the role of her husband’s messenger. Unlike in 2015, a confident and combative Sunita addressed the crowd at the INDIA bloc’s rally at the iconic Ramlila Maidan in Delhi. She read out a message from Kejriwal and said, “Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi put my husband in jail. Did the prime minister do the right thing? These BJP people are saying that Kejriwal ji is in jail, so he should resign. Should he resign? Your Kejriwal is a lion. They will not be able to keep him in jail for long.”

She has also issued three carefully curated video messages, which have stressed upon her husband’s image as the ‘son’ and the ‘elder brother’ of Delhiites. It was through one of these video statements that she announced Kejriwal’s plans to present his side of the story himself before the court. In her latest video message, she launched the party’s outreach programme to garner public support for Kejriwal. The idea evidently is to connect with the people on the issue of his arrest at an emotional level.

There is speculation about whether Sunita would replace Kerjiwal as Delhi chief minister if he continues to be in custody for long. Legal complications and issues of practicality are being discussed as regards to the current situation of a chief minister governing a state while being in custody. It is felt that since Kejriwal is the glue that holds the party together, there can be no better person than his wife to be his stand-in. AAP leaders, though, vehemently deny reports that the party is discussing this possibility. They insist that there are no plans to replace Kejriwal.

After the AAP’s victory in the 2020 assembly polls, THE WEEK had asked Sunita whether she planned to enter politics. She had replied with a firm no. “I do not discuss politics much,” she said. “I do not interfere in any of the decisions taken by the AAP. I only lend my husband a helping hand. I am his support system.”

Sunita is now stepping out of the shadows to support her husband. And, for his sake, she may well have to occupy the political centre stage.