NEW DELHI: After having led the Congress to three consecutive victories in the national capital in 1998, 2003 and 2008, Sheila Dikshit will now steer the ship of the party in Uttar Pradesh, where it is looking to make a comeback after being in wilderness for over three decades.
Ms Dikshit, who was today chosen by the Congress party as its Chief Ministerial candidate, has behind her an impressive electoral record, having led the party to three consecutive electoral victories in Delhi, before losing in December 2013 elections to the Delhi Legislative Assembly, at the hands of Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal, who replaced her as Delhi’s chief minister.
The 78-year-old Dikshit is credited with bringing about the transformation of Delhi through introduction of the CNG and Metro and lining the city with flyovers. Ms Dikshit is also a known face in UP politics, being the daughter in law of Uma Shankar Dikshit, a veteran Congress man and former Minister.
During the period between 1984 and 1989, she represented Kannauj parliamentary constituency of Uttar Pradesh. As a Member of Parliament, she served on the Estimates Committee of Lok Sabha.
Ms Dikshit also chaired the Implementation Committee for Commemoration of Forty Years of India’s Independence and Jawaharlal Nehru centenary.
She represented India at United Nations Commission on Status of Women for five years (1984?1989). She also served as a Union Minister during 1986, 1989, first as the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and later as a Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office.
In Uttar Pradesh, Ms Dikshit and her 82 colleagues were jailed in August 1990 for 23 days by the state government when she led a movement against the atrocities being committed on women. Earlier, in the early 1970s, she was chairperson of the Young Women’s Association and was instrumental in the setting up two of the most successful hostels for working women in Delhi.
She is also the Secretary of the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust. In her career spanning decades, Ms Dikshit also had her share of controversies. Questions were raised when she privatised Delhi Electricity Board and handed it over to Reliance and other private companies.This decision was made an election plank by AAP, which accused her of doling out favours to private companies.
She is married to Vinod Dikshit, son of independence activist and former West Bengal Governor Uma Shankar Dikshit, who came from Ugu village of Unnao. (AGENCIES)
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