AAP ideologue Yogendra Yadav said that the party would soon build a road map for national expansion. The five states he listed, apart from Punjab, are Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa. Significantly, four of them are BJP states. "We wanted to create a national platform for alternative politics and consciously chose Delhi as our starting point. A state which we will naturally expand to, since our four MPs are from there, is Punjab. The route to national politics has to be decided properly first," Yogendra Yadav said.

He said, "In the next five years, we would like to make our presence felt in at least three to five states more. For instance, the Gujarat to Orissa belt has a vacuum as far as political opposition goes. There is a huge possibility in these areas where Congress is declining. In Delhi, AAP did well because we provided people with a third alternative."

There is a very real possibility of Congress sinking nationally, "The party is on an edge and another big push will see it topple completely," Yadav added. "We will lose our distinctiveness if we start behaving like other parties. The last time, in sheer excitement some people in the party promised more than was possible - for instance, on security, as long as it is not obtrusive and unnecessary, it may be necessary for someone like Arvind (Kejriwal). But the day we start looking like other parties we will finish ourselves."

By Premji