Challenge before AAP is to perform

Rejoicing at a “big victory”, a Cabinet meeting to “discuss critical projects of public importance which were blocked so far” and a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for wasting AAP government's “precious three years” by taking away its powers through “illegal” orders.

A beaming Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal summed up the agenda for his party in the months ahead of Lok Sabha polls soon after the Supreme Court on Wednesday capped a bitter war between the AAP government and Lt Governor Anil Baijal over who is the boss of Delhi administration.

The announcement of convening cabinet at 4 PM soon after the SC verdict, which he described as “a big victory for the people of Delhi...a big victory for democracy”, and the decision at the meeting to “expedite proposals of doorstep delivery of rations and (installation of) CCTVs” showed AAP's priorities.

An adverse verdict could have cornered the AAP, which its opponents BJP and Congress accuse as "anarchist and confrontationist" administration that “hoodwink” people by putting the blame for non-performance at the Centre's doors.

Though it will highlight the “trouble” they faced from the LG, whom the court said should not act as an "obstructionist" and must go by the aid and advice of the Cabinet, the challenge for the AAP, whose campaign that its administration was crippled has got some vindication, is immense as its 'performance' will be up for intense scrutiny.

With Lok Sabha elections just months away, a senior AAP leader said, they will have to show some tangible results soon to blunt the opponents' offensive.

The AAP leaders see the verdict as something that gives it leverage in political as well as administration. They feel the AAP government would now have more control over bureaucrats, who has been on the warpath over a series of issues.

Kejriwal's main target will be the BJP, keeping in mind the larger opposition unity, and he made it clear by saying, “if Modi government had not withdrawn the powers of elected govt through illegal orders, precious three years would have been saved.” The AAP has already pitched that the LG's action was dictated by the Centre.

Though he did not mention Congress in his tweets after the SC order, it appeared that he had left it to state leaders to target Congress, which refused to endorse the recent protest by Kejriwal against Lt Governor unlike other Opposition parties.

While echoing Kejriwal 's attack on Modi for the “chaos” in Delhi, AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj targeted the Congress, “The powers enjoyed by (former Congress Chief Minister) Sheila Dikshit for 15 years, have been reinstated back to elected Delhi government. The vindictive Modi government had stolen those powers in May 2015, Sheila Dikshit's lies have been exposed by Supreme Court.”