When electoral success dried up for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Arvind Kejriwal, its firebrand supremo, retreated into a shell, quietly refashioning his strategy, which brought rewards for his party in the Bawana Assembly bypoll, the results of which were declared on 28 August.

Battered by successive poll defeats in Punjab, Goa and in Rajouri Garden in Delhi, the Kejriwal-led party altered its game plan, as a part of which the AAP supremo muted himself, refraining from targeting political rivals, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and instead, focussing on the achievements of his own government during the campaign.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Labour Minister Gopal Rai, who has been heading the party's Delhi unit since the recent MCD poll debacle, attributed the success to the AAP's track record in governance.