The BJP, smarting from the defeat, will try its best to wreck the AAP government on every front, which shouldn’t be too difficult given the glorified municipality status of the Delhi government.

AAP's victory in Delhi Assembly elections will definitely catapult the fledgling party into the national center stage with non-Congress parties likely to woo it assiduously to take on the BJP both at the national and the state level. However, AAP’s real strength will be challenged soon in days to come. The BJP, smarting from the defeat, will try its best to wreck the AAP government on every front, which shouldn’t be too difficult given the glorified municipality status of the Delhi government.

The BJP government in Haryana will definitely up the ante and refuse to give water to Delhi on some pretext or the other. Delhi produces practically nothing except services and the notable exceptions of pollution and noise. It is dependent on other states for its supply of water, power, vegetables and just about everything needed in the humdrum of daily life.

Full statehood to Delhi is now certainly not on the cards because doing that under the AAP regime would be suicidal for the BJP. BJP is already being pilloried for committing several blunders, including not holding the Delhi polls while still flush from the Lok Sabha victory, and it is not likely to commit one more by offering a prize that would make the AAP preen with pride.

With the status of a rump government, AAP would find it extremely difficult to deliver on its manifesto. Law and order is a serious issue in Delhi but the AAP government would be practically fighting crime and disorder with its hands tied behind its back. It is not as if the BJP would actively connive with criminals and lumpen elements, but at the same time it will not make life easy for its incipient national arch rival AAP.

Instead, its will attempt to make the AAP stew in its own juices. Delhi will be kept under the vice-like grip of the Centre not only to spite AAP but ostensibly because the nation’s capital should be under the central government. There is considerable merit in that argument because a nation’s capital plays host to foreign dignitaries and guides foreign investments besides being the harbinger of happenings in other states.

Full statehood being granted to Delhi would be used by Kejriwal to embarrass the BJP government at the Centre especially in the eyes of foreign governments that are warming upto Modi. In short, BJP would not give Kejriwal the stick to beat it with. Instead it would do everything in its power to project the fledgling party in bad light so that AAP’s success in retrospect turns out to be a flash in the pan.

The question is also whether the AAP will be able to replicate its success in other places. The answer to this seminal question will depend on what the AAP does in the days ahead. It has to go for an image makeover. It is cast in a rebellious mould that endears itself to youth in particular, who carries no baggage and celebrates novelty.

But in the long run, it should have a positive agenda that goes beyond subsidies. Electricity tariff cannot be halved across the board unless the government is ready to empty its coffers. Who knows it might do the unthinkable by inviting FDI in retail, if only to rein in vegetable and food prices, what with foreign retail chains enjoying a formidable reputation in setting up cold storage and preventing wastage.

The AAP has a long way to go in a country where caste, parochialism and other considerations still rule the roost. Regional parties still hold sway. In Bihar, AAP would find it extremely difficult to dislodge caste-based parties and politics. Delhi may be inhabited by people from every corner of the nation but it is by no means a microcosm of India. Bihar would soon prove Delhi was a one off.