HOW BJP WON DELHI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the cadre on February 8 had more fervour than usual. After all, the party had returned to power in the national capital after 27 years, winning 48 seats in Delhi's 70-member assembly and 45.6 per cent of its popular vote.

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

What made it sweeter was that it was a longaspired-for moral victory over the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), with its bossman Arvind Kejriwal himself trounced by the BJP's Parvesh Verma. This is also a third endorsement of the party's new election template, after Haryana and Maharashtra. The next set of assembly polls begin with Bihar later this year. The BJP is expected to borrow lots from the Delhi campaign. The highlights:

Strategic use of Brand Modi: PM Modi's speeches criticised the Delhi government and the AAP leadership, using terms like 'AAP-da (disaster) and 'sheeshmahal" (glass palace, referring to the crores spent on renovations to the CM's bungalow) but stopped short of naming Kejriwal. He also avoided directly evoking divisive agendas, leaving it to the local leaders.