New Delhi: Finally, the Congress party has announced its chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
And it’s none other than the party’s old war horse Sheila Dikshit.
As we say, a politician never retires, at least not in India.
The way former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, all of a sudden, has become the latest ‘buzzword’ in political circles, it makes one wonder whether she is destined, on the pattern of the mythical ‘phoenix’, to hog political limelight once again and at a time when the historians were preparing to write her political obituary.
A few weeks ago, the moment it was revealed that the Congress President Sonia Gandhi had asked Sheila Dikshit to meet her at 10, Janpath, all sorts of speculations started floating in political circles.
A section of party leaders and political commentators speculated that she might be made the CM face of the party in the politically most crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, which will also be going to polls early next year. The stakes are very high for the Congress this time in UP as the party has been out of power for 29 years now.
Putting at rest all such speculations, the party today decided that Sheila Dikshit will be the party’s CM candidate in the upcoming Assembly elections.
Honestly speaking, the announcement has come as a big surprise for political observers.
After Sheila Dikshit lost Delhi to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after three consecutive innings as Chief Minister, everybody thought that it was the end of an illustrious political career of the veteran Congress politician who is now 78 years old. The defeat was so severe and humiliating that she lost her own seat in these elections.
Still, what is it that makes the Congress party repose so much of faith in Sheila Dikshit who was almost preparing for retirement?
It’s true that her name was floating as the probable CM candidate of the Congress in UP since the time Prashant Kishor took over the reins of the party in the state for all practical reasons, but nobody took it seriously.
It is said that Rahul Gandhi has given Prashant Kishor full freedom to run the state unit barring three constituencies – Amethi, Rae Bareli and Sultanpur – that are considered to be the personal fiefdoms of the Nehru-Gandhi family.
And Prashant Kishor has started making his moves very deftly. The first casualty of Prashant Kishor’s new strategy was Madhusudan Mistry who was replaced by Ghulam Nabi Azad as the state in-charge. It is being said that Kishor also wants the state President Nirmal Khatri to make way for younger leaders like Jitin Prasad.
After deeply analysing the reasons behind Congress party’s poor state of affairs in India’s most populous state, Kishor reportedly came to the conclusion that the party can make a comeback only if either a person from ‘Nehru-Gandhi’ family or a ‘Brahmin’ is projected as the party’s CM face in the state.
Prashant Kishor’s first choice reportedly was Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi was his second choice. Since party, as Ghulam Nabi Azad explained recently, considers Rahul Gandhi as the PM material, there was no question of him being made the CM face.
Since the party is also not very sure of a clear-cut Congress victory in the state, they are also not willing to make Priyanka Gandhi a scapegoat.
All this leaves the party with only one option – to project a ‘Brahmin’ as the CM candidate.
Political observers point out that since the local unit of the Congress does not have any credible ‘Brahmin’ face; the party decided to hand over the responsibility to Sheila Dikshit.
It has been pointed out that what goes in Sheila Dikshit’s favour is her record of successfully ruling Delhi for 15 long years. Even her detractors acknowledge her administrative acumen and concede that despite her government being blamed for numerous scams in the state, Sheila Dikshit did a commendable job especially in creating a good infrastructure in the national capital.
She is a ‘Brahmin’ and therefore fulfils the criteria as formulated by Prashant Kishor to suit the demands of ‘identity politics’ which is so dominant in the state.
In addition to that her family links in the state will also come in handy for the party. Her father-in-law Uma Shankar Dikshit was a prominent Congressman of UP and the party believes that the Brahmins, who constitute 11-13% of the state electorate, will throw their weight behind their ‘daughter-in-law’. Once the Brahmins return, Prashant Kishor believes that it will have a cascading effect and the other traditional voters of the Congress may also join the bandwagon.
Like Prashant Kishor, the state unit of the Congress has also started believing that if they have a Brahmin face, they have a good chance to make their presence felt in the state very strongly. The party also plans to fully use Priyanka Gandhi as the lead campaigner this time which will also help the party attract their traditional support base consisting of upper caste, Dalits and Muslims. And then the party is counting on the organisational skills of Ghulam Nabi Azad who has been made the state in-charge of the Congress.
The Congress may be accused of forgetting the fact that much water has flown through the Ganges in last 29 years, they have all the rights to come with a strategy that suits them the best.
As far as Sheila Dikshit is concerned, her destiny seems to have still many more surprises left for her as far as her political journey is concerned.
