World | India
Dikshit to become longest-serving CM
Sheila Dikshit is poised to rewrite history by becoming the longest-serving chief minister of the Congress party after emerging victorious in the Delhi assembly elections.
- By Ajay Jha, Chief Correspondent
- Published: 23:32 December 8, 2008
- Image Credit: AP
- Delhi state Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit comes out of her residence to address the media.
New Delhi: Sheila Dikshit is poised to rewrite history by becoming the longest-serving chief minister of the Congress party after emerging victorious in the Delhi assembly elections.
Although the Congress party, following tradition, did not nominate her as its chief ministerial candidate, her selection to continue as the chief minister for the third consecutive term has now become a mere formality.
So towering has been the personality of the 70-year-old leader that the contest was confined to Dikshit versus Bharatiya Janata Party in which Dikshit's performance and image proved to the overriding factor.
A crestfallen BJP, which was confident of victory, was looking for a plausible reason to explain its Delhi fiasco.
BJP's chief ministerial candidate Vijay Kumar Malhotra hinted at back stabbing, implying that he did not get support of all sections of the party.
On the other hand, party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad had no qualms accepting that Malhotra, 77, was not the best choice saying the party would have fared much better under the leadership of national general secretary Arun Jaitley.
Jaitley's impeccable image got tarnished by the party's defeat in Delhi. After refusing to contest Delhi elections, Jaitley was asked to engineer the BJP's victory in the national capital. Jaitley was seen as lucky mascot for the party as the BJP emerged victorious in about half a dozen states while he was the general secretary in-charge.
Female leader
Dikshit, on the other hand, had no problems at all.
Although her party could not win as many seats as it the past two elections, it won enough seats to ensure she continues in power unchallenged.
She won the New Delhi assembly seat by over 14,000 votes while most of her ministers also managed to retain their seats.
Flashing the V signal, Dikshit said she was overwhelmed by the voters‚ response. Dikshit went to voters on the basis of her record as the chief minister in the past decade and promised further development.
"We will look to make the lives of people as comfortable as possible. There are lots of unfinished initiatives that had to be completed. We will do our best to make Delhi a better place to live in," Dikshit promised.
Many of her known detractors were shown the door, some even contested as rebel candidates and lost.
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