It was in 1998 when Sheila Dikshit was asked by the Congress president Sonia Gandhi to take the reins of a highly divided Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC). She accepted the challenge and took on the then formidable city unit of the BJP and ensured victory for her party. Congress was brought back to power and therein started her dream run as the Chief Minister of Delhi. Credited with transforming the landscape of the national Capital, she ushered in an era of good governance with public participation.
Before being pitch forked into the conundrum of Delhi politics, she had served as Minister of State in Prime Minister’s office during Rajiv Gandhi regime. When she took over the charge of Delhi Congress from veteran Dalit leader Chaudhary Prem Singh, she was billed as a rank outsider. She proved her detractors wrong and defeated the combined might of BJP with leaders like former chief ministers Madan Lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma, Sushma Swaraj, former Chief Executive Councillor Prof VK Malhotra, Prof OP Kohli and Jagdish Mukhi. It was a momentous victory for Congress led by Sheila Dikshit despite leaders like Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and Subhash Chopra, owing allegiance to HKL Bhagat trying to destabilize her.
During her tenure as Chief Minister, Delhi Congress unit saw many chiefs but the DPCC had became synonymous to Dikshit as he had a major say in organisational matters. Since 2013, the Congress, once in a pole position, was relegated to the third position in every major election that it contested in Delhi. Congress was effectively finished in 2013 with the emergence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). She bowed out of the Delhi political scene after her uninterrupted rule from 1998-2013 came to an end as she lost her Gole Market Assembly constituency to Arvind Kejriwal and Congress being pushed to third spot with just eight Assembly seats.
Arvind Kejriwal led AAP won a landslide in 2015 Delhi Assembly elections and Congress was vanquished from the national capital territory. For first time since 1993, the grand old party had failed to win even a single seat in Delhi Assembly elections.
Dikshit was away from the fight in 2015 and the reins of Delhi Congress were with her former minister Arvinder Singh Lovely. After Congress failed to register its presence during municipal polls under the stewardship of former Union Minister Ajay Maken, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) once again turned to Sheila Dikshit to revive the fortunes of the party.
She was brought back again to head the DPCC in 2018 with the specific mandate to revive the party. She fought a spirited election and brought back Congress to 2nd position in five out of seven Lok Sabbha seats in the city.
Despite Congress putting up an improved show in the Lok Sabha elections, her detractors in the party were after her. She had to contend with the Delhi affairs in-charge PC Chacko who did not like her decision to dissolve block and district level committees. While she was battling for life at Fortis Escorts hospital, Chacko issued a tersely worded order to criticise her ‘unilateral action’ and revived all the block and district level Congress committees that were dissolved by Dikshit. She did not live to fight her last political battle and breathed her last on Saturday at 3.55 pm.
With her passing away, Delhi Congress has lost its tallest leader. On Sunday Sheila Dikshit’s body was taken to the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee’s office for the last time, the place that was central to her politics since 1998.
Emotional party workers bid her final adieu and everybody present there had tears rolling down their cheeks. Many waxed eloquent about her affable nature and easygoing nature. With Sheila Dikshit (81), gone to her heavenly abode, the politics of Delhi Congress would never be the same again.