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Sheila Dikshit, the Congress warhorse all set for a new race in Delhi
Eighty-year-old Dikshit replaces Ajay Maken, who cited health reasons and resigned on January 4 from the post of state Congress president.
Three-time chief minister Sheila Dikshit will take over as Delhi Congress’s chief on Wednesday as the party banks on the seasoned politician to revive its hopes in the national capital in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The 80-year-old replaces Ajay Maken, who cited health reasons and resigned on January 4.
Dikshit was the longest-reigning chief minister of Delhi, serving for 15 years from 1998 to 2013, before the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ended Congress’s rule.
The Congress government under Dikshit’s leadership is credited with major decisions such as switching the Delhi Transport Corporation’s fleet to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), privatisation of power distribution companies, building of flyovers, and trifurcation of the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi among others.
She was born into a family of politicians in Punjab but joined active politics after her marriage to Vinod Dikshit, son of Uma Shankar Dikshit a former Union minister and governor. In 1984, she was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Kannauj seat and served as the Minister of State for parliamentary affairs from 1986 to 1989. She also held the charge as minister in Prime Minister’s Office.
Dikshit led the Congress in the 1998 Delhi assembly elections and was in power for 15 years before suffering defeat in 2013 at the hands of the Aadm Aadmi Party.
Dikshit takes over the top job at a time when the Congress is fighting for its survival in Delhi. The party could not win a single seat in the 2015 assembly elections, which the AAP won by a landslide. The party also failed to register a single win in Delhi in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, with the BJP emerging victorious in all seven constituencies.
Haroon Yusuf, Devender Yadav and Rajesh Lilothia, who were appointed as working presidents, will be Dikshit’s lieutenants. Yusuf is a Sheila loyalist and was a former minister in her government while Yadav and Lilothia are both All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretaries and former MLAs.
The three working presidents will play a key role in galvanising the support of key sections of the electorate, especially Muslims, Dalits and young voters.
Yusuf, 60, a four-time MLA from Ballimaran, had been a minister in the Dikshit government since 1998 and handled key portfolios such as power, transport, food and civil supplies, industries and revenue. He is the party’s prominent Muslim face in Delhi.
Yadav, 46, and Lilothia, 49, are both two-time MLAs, from Badli and Patel Nagar, respectively, and are relatively young. They will both play a key role in garnering the support of young voters, who sided with the AAP in 2015, a party leader said on condition of anonymity. Lilothia is a scheduled caste member. Muslims and scheduled castes had been a key vote bank of the Congress until it lost power.
