Manish Sisodia's bail shot in arm for AAP ahead of Haryana, Delhi polls

The Supreme Court's bail to senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia could not have come at a better time for the embattled party grappling with the incarceration of its prominent members and a loss of face over corruption charges.

Prior to his arrest on 26 February 2023, Sisodia was not only the key face of the Delhi government, but also the party's go-to man in terms of firefighting during critical times and highlighting its stand on political and national issues.

He also shared a close rapport not only with party supremo Arvind Kejriwal but also several other leaders.

Thus his arrest was a bolt from the blue for the party, which somehow managed to brave the situation but could never fully recover from his absence.

It was no wonder that various party leaders, at different points in time, remembered him saying had he been out, things would have been different.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court granted bail to Sisodia sharply pulling up the lower courts and saying his long incarceration of 17 months without trial deprived him of the right to speedy justice.

The bail to Sisodia is a shot in the arm for the beleaguered party, which is gearing up to contest the Haryana assembly polls and the Delhi elections in the next few months.

Party leaders claimed his release is a setback to the "mission" to defame AAP.

"Sisodia was doing such noble work and he was put behind bars for 17 months in a fake case. There was anger among people of Delhi over his arrest and his release will have a positive impact for our party. We will win two or four seats more than last time. In fact, I think we will win effect a clean sweep," senior party leader Durgesh Pathak said.

Party leaders feel Sisodia's presence will bolster its election campaign, especially in Delhi where it is looking for a third consecutive term and aiming for a performance similar to that of 2015 and 2020 when it won 67 and 62 seats respectively.

"There is a lot of enthusiasm among AAP workers after Sisodia got bail. Its impact will be felt in the coming elections. We hope Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal will also be soon out of jail," a beaming AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh said.

The period from 2022 to 2024 has been a tumultuous one for the party owing to the arrest of its senior leaders.

During this period, the party has seen electoral gains and its elevation to the status of a national party but it would not be wrong to say that the journey has been riddled with more troughs than crests.

It all began with the arrest of former health minister and senior party leader Satyendar Jain in a money laundering by ED in May 2022.

In the same year in July, Lt governor V.K. Saxena recommended a CBI probe in the excise policy over alleged violations of rules and procedural lapses.

The development subsequently led to murmurs about the arrest of Sisodia, who was the key man behind the framing of the policy under which retail licences were given to private bidders for 849 vends across the national capital divided into 32 zones.

Sisodia himself had foretold about his arrest and how he had been approached by BJP to break up the AAP and join hands with the saffron party. Eventually, he was arrested by CBI on February 26 and then by ED in the excise policy linked money laundering case the next month.

Along with Jain, he resigned from the Delhi cabinet last year paving the way for the induction of Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj as ministers.

Few months later in October, Singh was arrested by ED in excise policy linked money laundering case but he was luckier than his other party colleagues as he secured a bail in April 2024.

Kejriwal was arrested on 21 March by the ED in connection with the excise policy case. In May, he was granted interim bail for Lok Sabha poll campaigning. He surrendered on 2 June. He was arrested on 26 June by the CBI in the case from the Tihar Jail.

Though the chief minister has been granted interim bail by the apex court in the ED case, he continues to be in jail because of the CBI case.

Sisodia's bail has given hope to the party that Kejriwal and Jain could also be out soon.