Former Chief Minister of Delhi and senior Congress leader Sheila Diskhit was on Tuesday night appointed as Governor of Kerala. The incumbent, Nikhil Kumar, has submitted his resignation. Sources said on Tuesday night that the decision has been conveyed to 75-year-old Dikshit, who will succeed Nikhil Kumar, a former Delhi Police Commissioner.
Dikshit has served as Delhi's Chief Minister from 1998 to 2013 and changed the contour of Delhi and ruled the capital on the slogan of 'development'. From the Delhi Metro to a string of flyovers and from a brand new public transport system to accepting that the BRTS simply does not work for Delhi, she has put Delhi firmly on the global cities map. If India's growth rate is 8.33 percent, Delhi's has been 10.33 per cent. The former CM had represented UP's Kannauj parliamentary constituency between 1984 and 1989.
In 1998, she was appointed president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC), being given charge of a party that was riven by factionalism with just six months to go for Assembly polls. Nudged along by an anti-incumbency wave against the BJP government owing to a serious onion crisis in Delhi, Sheila's Congress won 52 out of 70 seats that year. Good governance and infrastructure development have remained Sheila Dikshit's keywords throughout the three terms she has enjoyed since.
A big plank for her next election would be the introduction of the bhagidari (partnership) system with residents' associations of Delhi in governnace decisions. The bhagidari system helped set right several Delhi ills — pollution, encroachments, traffic chaos and more. A variety of social welfare schemes focusing on pension for marginalised groups, an improved Public Distribution System are also among her achievements.