Congress has again turned to Sheila Dikshit to rescue the party in Delhi. Can she deliver?
The 2019 Lok Sabha elections are just around the corner and among the 29 states and seven Union Territories in the country, very few places intrigue people's interest like the national capital - Delhi - during the elections. The seven parliamentary seats in the national capital UT see a triangular contest among the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.
In January 2019, Sheila Dikshit was appointed the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee's chief replacing Ajay Maken, who resigned from the post citing health issues. Despite a spectacular fall from grace in 2014, both the Congress and Dikshit have decided to go it alone in the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Delhi, shunning the advances of AAP Convener and current Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to stitch up a potential alliance. The Lok Sabha elections will be held in a single phase on May 12.
Doctor Sheila Dikshit
Born in Punjab's Kapurthala in 1938, Sheila Dikshit was a bright student from a young age. After completing her schooling from the Convent of Jesus and Mary School, she got enrolled into Miranda House College of Delhi University from where she received a Masters in History. She did not stop her academic career there as she went on to pursue a PhD in Philosophy from DU and after its completion, she married IAS officer Vinod Dikshit.
Accidental politician
Sheila Dikshit's father-in-law, Uma Shankar Dikshit, was a renowned Independence activist and a life-long Congress leader who served as the governor of Karnataka and West Bengal. Sheila Dikshit used to help him a lot while he was serving as a union cabinet minister in the Indira Gandhi government. And it was there where Indira Gandhi acknowledged her administrative potential and delegated her to the United Nations Commission on the status of women.
Sheila Dikshit was reluctant at first but since her husband could not foray into politics due to his work commitments with the Indian Administrative Service, she stepped into the world of politics. She accepted Indira Gandhi's proposal and represented India at the United Nations Commission on Status of Women for five years. In the 1984 general elections, she contested from Uttar Pradesh's Kannuaj constituency and was elected the Member of Parliament from there. Between 1986 and 1989, Dikshit also served as a union minister, first as the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and later as a Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office.
It was in 1998 when Sheila Dikshit stamped her authority in Indian politics by becoming the second female chief minister of Delhi after Sushma Swaraj. Remarkably, Dikshit was elected the CM just a couple of months after she had lost the parliamentary elections from East Delhi constituency to BJP's Lal Bihari Tiwari the same year. She went on to hold the Delhi CM post for three successive terms till 2013 when a government officer-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal snatched her territory from her through the ballot in Assembly elections.
Steep decline in popularity
In 2010, Sheila Dikshit was accused by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of corruption and irregularities related to equipment that was imported during the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Later in 2013, an ombudsman court ordered registration of an FIR against her for allegedly misusing funds sanctioned by the central government for Rajiv Ratan Awas Yojana for personal advertisements. Although Delhi Lokayukta gave her a clean chit in the case, her popularity had taken a significant hit by then.
In the 2013 Delhi Assembly elections, the Congress saw its seat count go down to just 8 from 43 in the 70-seat Assembly and in the 2015 re-elections, the grand old party was wiped out from the national capital after it failed to secure a single seat.
The Congress suffered another shambolic loss in Delhi under the leadership of Sheila Dikshit in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections where the grand old party was usurped from all the seven parliamentary seats by the BJP.
Rise like the Phoenix?
Although state legislative assembly elections are no cent per cent indicators of a party's chances in the Lok Sabha elections, they are still considered a bellwether to a much-likely outcome on the state front. Since 2013, the Delhi electorate has largely rejected Sheila Dikshit in both general and state assembly elections, however, that hasn't discouraged the Congress from appointing her as the chief of the party's Delhi unit. She even rejected the possibility of contesting the upcoming elections in an alliance with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party. Dikshit will be fully aware that a lot is riding on her in the electoral battle and the Congress leadership will be desperately hoping their veteran leader pulls out a bunny out of the hat.
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