Every war is made up of many battles and every war leaves behind a trail of metaphors to live by. Perhaps the most enduring image from the battle of Krojanty in 1939 is that of the Polish cavalry with their lances charging heroically at the German panzers in the face of machine fire from the latters’ cannons. Its emotional appeal almost obscures the fact that the charge yielded little except a mythologized image. The Polish cavalry was forced to retreat and perhaps left wondering if taking a guerrilla army to halt the invasion might have been a better idea.

In the context of the Delhi elections, Kejriwal led AAP was a guerrilla army against the might of the BJP’s absurdly well-funded, managed, and polarising election campaign.