India, Feb. 9 -- Go back to the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) landslide victory in 2020. That year, bruised by the drubbing received in the Lok Sabha polls just months before, the sweeping protests on account of the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, and a combative Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which sought to paint then chief minister Arvind Kejriwal as an anti-India force, Delhi's ruling party appeared to be fighting with its back to the wall.

The AAP's saviour was its record of delivery. It showcased improved government schools, ratcheted up public spending in education, built a slew of neighbourhood clinics, unveiled free schemes for medicines, diagnostics and even surgeries, expanded its signature tariff breaks on electric...