The resignation of senior leader and minister Kailash Gahlot has struck a major blow to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) months before Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in Delhi. Though rumours about Gahlot’s departure had been circulating since the Lok Sabha elections, his exit has intensified uncertainty within the party.

According to sources, Gahlot, who held important portfolios such as Transport, WCD, Home, Administrative Reforms and IT, is likely to join the BJP in the coming days and contest the Assembly elections from Najafgarh, his current seat. AAP sources said the exit of the two-time MLA and senior minister, who also served as one of the party’s key backroom operators, was a setback as it could influence Jaat voters in the Assembly polls and hamper the party’s efforts to roll out a crucial welfare scheme.

While leaving the party, Gahlot blamed “AAP’s constant fight against the Centre and less focus on fulfilling promises made to people”, “political agenda”, “controversy”, and an “awkward” situation over the renovation of the CM house as reasons for his resignation. But AAP sources claimed he had been unhappy and disenchanted with the party’s senior leadership for some time, especially as he was overlooked and Atishi was promoted as CM and important portfolios such as law and revenue that he held went to her.

“Resentment between him and the party started last year after former Deputy CM (Manish Sisodia) went to jail and six portfolios such as Finance, PWD, Revenue, and Power fell vacant. Initially, he was given the crucial responsibility of handling Finance and a Budget presentation was given to him. But after Sisodia and Satyender Jain’s portfolios fell vacant, the party selected Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj as the new ministers in the party and all the portfolios Sisodia held were given to Atishi,” said an AAP leader.

“After Atishi, a first-time MLA, was promoted with responsibility of important portfolios, Gahlot who is the experienced and senior minister in the Delhi Cabinet felt that he was relegated to the backseat,” said another leader.

Some pointed out that Gahlot was seen as someone becoming close to Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena who attended several events of the Transport Department along with Gahlot. In August, when Arvind Kejriwal nominated Atishi to hoist flags in his absence on Independence Day at Chhatrasal Stadium, the L-G rejected the proposal and nominated Gahlot instead, citing that “as per protocol, the Home Minister will hoist the flags”. This did not go down well with the AAP leadership, sources said.

When former CM and AAP national convener Kejriwal was arrested in March, the spotlight suddenly fell on him as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned him for questioning in the Delhi excise policy case.

His name was mentioned in the investigating agency’s remand application for Kejriwal, according to which the party’s communications in-charge Vijay Nair, whom the ED accused of playing a key role in the alleged scam, was living in Gahlot’s government bungalow in Delhi’s Civil Lines. Another cloud that hung over him was the BJP’s allegation of irregularities in the contracts given for the maintenance of 1,000 low-floor air-conditioned buses. A committee formed by then Lt Governor Anil Baijal had flagged various lapses.

At the time of Kejriwal’s arrest, there was speculation within the AAP that Gahlot would quit the party and join the BJP. However, he stayed put and became visibly active after Sisodia and Kejriwal got out of prison on bail. He was seen attending all party meetings and protests and was also present outside Tihar Jail to welcome the two top leaders as they got out. Even after the important portfolios of Law, Revenue, and Vigilance were taken away from him and handed over to Atishi, he pledged his allegiance to Kejriwal, calling himself the “Hanuman of Lord Ram (Kejriwal)” and stating that he would work for the betterment of “Kejriwal’s Ram Rajya”.

“But, he was dissatisfied after the reshuffling of the portfolio, when Kejriwal resigned and Atishi took over,” said an AAP insider. “He had a rift with Kejriwal for a very long time but things between the two settled in the past couple of years.”

There is concern within the AAP that with Gahlot gone, several crucial projects will be hampered. He was overlooking the “Mahila Samman Rashi” project that was one of the Delhi government’s main announcements in this year’s Budget and was going to be a centrepiece of the AAP’s Assembly election campaign.

Under the scheme, women 18 years old and above will be eligible to receive Rs 1,000 each month. Gahlot had been holding several meetings with officials, asking them to speed up the scheme’s implementation, according to government insiders.

The 50-year-old was also the brain behind several important and top schemes such as “Pink Pass”, the “Mukhyamantri Tirath Yatra Yojana”, the “Electric Vehicle Policy”, and the introduction of bus marshals and hi-tech security system in buses for the safety of women, and getting more woman bus drivers. Gahlot, as Transport Minister, was also credited with starting the electric bus revolution and electrification of bus depots in the national capital, instrumental in getting over 1,000 e-buses inducted into the city’s ageing bus fleet.

Gahlot is one of the rare AAP politicians born and brought up in Delhi. He is from the village Mitraon and comes from a family of agriculturists. He studied law at Delhi University and practised law in the Delhi High Court — he was a member executive of the Bar Association of the High Court from 2005 to 2007 — and the Supreme Court.

He joined the AAP in 2015 and became the party’s Jaat face. The same year, he got the Assembly poll ticket and won Najafgarh by a thin margin of 1,550 votes. He would go on to win the seat again in 2020 by over 6,000 votes. Before becoming a Cabinet Minister, he ran a Trust named after his father to educate the youth of Najafgarh.