Sheila Dikshit – The longest-serving female chief minister of any Indian state

Sheila Dikshit (1938 – 2019) was a senior politician from Delhi belonging to Indian National Congress. She served as the Chief Minister of Delhi for 3 terms for a long period of 15 years during 1998 – 2013, and played a magnificent role in the development of the capital city. She is the longest-serving female chief minister of any Indian state and also one of the longest-serving chief ministers of Delhi. She is the daughter-in-law of leading politician and former governor of Karnataka and West Bengal, Uma Shankar Dikshit. Her son Sandeep Dikshit is also a politician and a former parliamentarian. Sheila Dikshit served as governor of Kerala for a short period in 2014 before she was dethroned by newly elected NDA government.

Sheila Dikshit was born in Kapurthala, Punjab. Her higher education was completed at Delhi. In the 1970s she got into politics. In 1984 she was handpicked by Rajiv Gandhi to be part of his council of ministers, marking a new chapter in her professional life. Since then she was fully involved in politics for the next three decades. She got elected to Lok Sabha in 1984 from Kannauj and served a term of 5 years. She also represented India at United Nations Commission on Status of Women at the same time period. She served as a Union Minister during 1986–1989 in Congress-led government.

After her defeat in 1998 parliamentary elections, she concentrated on to Delhi politics, and got elected as Chief Minister the same year. Till 2013 she served as CM of the state without any break, and has been elected in 1998, 2003 and 2008 state assembly elections. Her party faced a huge defeat in 2013 state assembly elections and she lost her power. Dikshit was defeated in New Delhi constituency by Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal and he came into power. She was fully active in politics and was elected as the president of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee in early 2019, but passed away 6 months later. She was 81.

Sheila Dikshit – Some interesting and less-known facts

While serving as governor of Kerala

1. Her maiden name is Sheila Kapoor.

2. Her husband Vinod Dikshit was a civil service officer.

3. She was serving as the CM of Delhi when the infamous Delhi rape case took place, and it gave a bad mark in her political career. She never managed to comeback to politics. AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal came into power.

4. In 1998 she was defeated in Lok Sabha elections by BJP’s Lal Bihari Tiwari in East Delhi constituency.

5. Her funeral as per her wish was conducted at a cheap cost of rupees 500, setting an example even after her death.