DIKSHITS

With Sandeep Dikshit entering the fray, the third generation of the family comes into politics.

Sheila Dikshit, the chief minister of Delhi, is the best-known face of the family. She inherits her clout in the Congress from father-in-law Uma Shankar, a freedom fighter and an influential party figure in his time who went on the become the Union Home Minister and later the Governor of two states.

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But it is Sheila who has got the family into the limelight. She moved through the ranks to make it to the Union Council of Ministers, before leading the Congress to a surprise victory in the Delhi assembly polls in 1998. She repeated the feat in late 2003, even as her party lost in three other states in simultaneous assembly polls.

Now, she is hoping to get the third generation, her son Sandeep, into the family business.

Uma Shankar Dikshit
Entry into politics: Pre-independence
Top Post: Union Cabinet Minister; Governor of Karnataka, West Bengal
Best known for: Participation in freedom struggle
Party: Congress

Sheila Dikshit (daughter-in-law)
Entry into politics: 1970
Top Post: Chief Minister of Delhi, Union Minister of State
Best known for: Ending BJP rule in Delhi
Party: Congress
Constituency: Gole Market assembly constituency, Delhi; Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh
In this election: Leading Congress campaigner in the state