NEW DELHI: Delhi’s longest-serving Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit passed away on Saturday owing to a cardiac ailment. She was 81. Dikshit will always be remembered as the face of Delhi, who worked tirelessly during her 15-year stint as the chief minister to improve the city’s infrastructure, public transport and look.Her political journey was accidental. It began by winning the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh in 1984, becoming a minister in the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet. There was no going back after that as she continued the legacy of her father-in-law, Uma Shankar Dikshit, a seasoned politician from UP.
The launch of the Delhi chapter of her political journey was not smooth. Her party fielded her against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Lal Bihari Tiwari for the East Delhi seat in the 1998 parliamentary elections and she lost. But eight months later, Dikshit bounced back, winning the Delhi Assembly election for the party and becoming the Chief Minister. That victory was attributed to the spiraling onion prices in Delhi. But she went about ruling Delhi with such a zeal that it ensured her party returned to power for two more terms.
Soon after assuming charge, Dikshit kicked off the Bhagidari system, a participatory form of governance. It empowered citizens to present their needs and ideas to the executives to resolve civic issues. If her first term was about empowering resident welfare associations, privatisation of power distribution and the initiation of the Delhi Metro, the remaining years were known for social schemes exclusively for women, the girl child, infrastructure upgrade and transformation of public transport.
Civic amenities and a network of flyovers and roads came up in Delhi, setting an example for good governance. Retired bureaucrats and senior government officials recalled her as a creative thinker and determined politician who never shied away from experimenting for the welfare of the people. Dikshit’s last term as the CM was mired in a controversy over financial irregularities during the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
But despite that, she went about her job with utmost dignity and grace. Dikshit always remained close to the Gandhi family, from Indira Gandhi to Rahul. When it seemed that her political career was nearing the end, she was brought back as the party chief in Delhi just before the Lok Sabha election this year. Despite her reluctance, outgoing Congress president Rahul Gandhi insisted upon her to contest the Lok Sabha election from Northeast Delhi, which she lost. Even her staunchest opponents remembered Dikshit as a fine human being who loved books, food, art and classical music.