Sheila Dikshit

( Mar 31 1938 - Jul 20 2019 )

Other Detail

Achievements

Sheila Dikshit was an Indian politician. The longest-serving Chief Minister of Delhi, as well as the longest-serving female chief minister of any Indian state, she served for a period of 15 years beginning in 1998. Dikshit led Congress party to three consecutive electoral victories in Delhi. Dikshit lost the December 2013 elections of the Delhi Legislative Assembly to the Bharatiya Janata Party, though Aam Aadmi Party formed a minority government with outside support from the INC, with Arvind Kejriwal as the chief minister. She briefly served as the Governor of Kerala in 2014. Dikshit was later declared a chief ministerial candidate for the Indian National Congress in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, but withdrew her nomination. She was appointed president of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee on 10 January 2019 and remained in office until her death in July later that year. Sheila Kapoor was born on 31 March 1938 in Kapurthala, Punjab, into a Punjabi Khatri family. Her father's name was Sanjay Kapoor. She was educated at the Convent of Jesus and Mary School in New Delhi and graduated with a Master of Arts degree in history from the Miranda House at the University of Delhi. Sheila Dikshit was handpicked by Rajiv Gandhi to be part of his council of ministers after he became the prime minister in 1984. During the period between 1984 and 1989, she represented Kannauj parliamentary constituency of Uttar Pradesh. As a member of Parliament, she served on the Estimates Committee of Lok Sabha. Dikshit also chaired the Implementation Committee for Commemoration of Forty Years of India's Independence and Jawaharlal Nehru centenary. She represented India at United Nations Commission on Status of Women for five years (1984–1989). She also served as a Union Minister during 1986–1989, first as the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and later as a minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office. In Uttar Pradesh, she and her 82 colleagues were jailed in August 1990 for 23 days by the state government when she led a movement against the atrocities being committed against women. Dikshit was married to Vinod Dikshit, son of independence activist and former West Bengal governor Uma Shankar Dikshit from Unnao. He was an officer in the Indian Administrative Service. Dikshit was the mother of two children: a son, Sandeep Dikshit, who is a former member of Parliament of the 15th Lok Sabha from East Delhi,[24] and a daughter, Latika Syed. Dikshit underwent angioplasty in November 2012. In 2018, she had heart surgery in University Hospital in Lille, France. Dikshit was admitted to Fortis Escorts Heart Institute on 19 July 2019 for cardiac arrhythmia and was put on a ventilator within a few moments of her admission. Her condition stabilised temporarily, however she did not recover from multiple cardiac arrests and her condition worsened during the following period. She later died at 3:55 pm on 20 July 2019, at the age of 81. The Delhi government announced a two-day mourning period on her death, and accorded her a state funeral.

Profession

Indian politician

Address

Punjab, India