New Delhi chief minister to be able to push stalled projects

Arvind Kejriwal’s decision to step down as Delhi chief minister may enable the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader chosen as his successor to put in motion several projects, which have been in limbo due to the CM’s incarceration, according to former senior bureaucrats and government officials, who added that the party will hope to leverage these schemes to boost its chances in the upcoming 2025 assembly elections in the Capital.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislative party is meeting on Tuesday morning to elect the first new chief minister of Delhi in nine years.
With the Delhi assembly elections likely in February 2025, the new chief minister will push the new administration to give priority to key projects that will have the biggest impact on voters in the city, according to a party leader familiar with the discussions in the party.
Given the flux in the government since Kejriwal’s arrest in March 2024, several projects and plans of the Delhi government have been delayed and are currently pending.
The AAP government’s proposed plan to provide ₹1,000 per month financial assistance to all women of the city provided they meet certain conditions was unveiled in March, but is yet to take off. It needed the approval of the cabinet, but no meeting of the cabinet could be held due to Kejriwal’s incarceration.
Similarly, the Delhi government’s electric vehicle (EV) policy expired in July, and the new policy has to be cleared by the cabinet. The doorstep delivery of services scheme of the government is also currently not operational because its term expired in March, and needs the approval of the cabinet for relaunch. Other policies such as the startup policy and food truck policy are also pending, the officials said.
Several projects such as the redevelopment of markets, plans to promote business and commerce by holding shopping festivals, and the planned infrastructure revamp of the city are among the pending projects.
The new CM’s approval of such major projects will be a shot in the arm for the AAP months before the 2025 assembly elections in Delhi, a senior former bureaucrat said.
Unlike Kejriwal, whose bail conditions lay down that he cannot go to Delhi secretariat and the Delhi CM office and cannot sign official files except those which are required to be sent to lieutenant governor VK Saxena for clearance, the new chief minister of Delhi will not have any restrictions.
To be sure, the AAP has said that the bail conditions do not hamper governance because Kejriwal could always summon officials home for meetings, and did not need to clear routine files since he does not hold any departmental portfolio.
Kejriwal, too, clarified that the bail conditions did not restrict him from working for the people. While announcing his resignation plan on Sunday, the CM said some people are saying that the Supreme Court has imposed some conditions, and we will not be able to work.
“In the last 10 years, these people have left no stone unturned in imposing conditions. The LG imposed various conditions. The central government snatched my power by imposing one law after the other, but I did not let your work suffer,” said Kejriwal.
The AAP has said that Kejriwal chose to resign because wants to sit on the CM’s chair only after seeking the “certificate of honesty” from people in the upcoming assembly elections.
A former chief secretary of Delhi, who did not want to be named, said that the new CM “will operate in an atmosphere of greater freedom” and a clean slate and thus may be able to push pending works through. “Although the bail conditions do not technically bar Kejriwal from operating as CM and even holding the meetings of the cabinet at his official residence, but the inability to go to his office in Delhi secretariat and the ability to sign only those files that go to the LG could have created obstacles. The new CM will be free of these,” said the officer.
The officer, however, added: “Even if Delhi gets a new CM, it would be easy for everyone to figure out where the actual power centre rests in the AAP administration.”