Sheila Dikshit, who defeated anti-incumbency factor to steer the Congress to an emphatic win in the elections, took oath as Delhi chief minister for the third consecutive term on Wednesday (17^th December). Lt Governor Tejendra Khanna administered the oath of office to Sheila Dikshit in his official residence Raj Niwas.

 

An unparalleled feat for a Congress leader in recent times, Dikshit, who faced many a rebellion and dissidence within her party, has managed to maintain her public image in the hurly-burly of capital's politics.

 

This Assembly election raised her profile which was evident as the meeting of the Legislature Party took just 90 minutes to elect her as its leader while it took almost a week for the party to choose her as the chief minister in 2003 due to intense infighting in the party.

 

In the grand old party, no one else has the record of a hatrick term in the top office of a state other than Mohan Lal Sukhadia, who was the chief minister of Rajasthan for 17 long years, and Krishna Sinha in Bihar for 14 years.

 

Born in a non-political family in Kapurthala district on March 31, 1938, Sheila Dikshit, eldest of three daughters, was exposed to politics after she married Vinod Dikshit, an IAS officer and son of former union minister Uma Shankar Dikshit.