Sheila Dikshit

Sheila Dikshit (pronounced [ˈʃiːlaː ˈdiːkʂɪt] ) (née Kapoor; 31 March 1938 – 20 July 2019) was an Indian politician. The longest-serving chief minister of Delhi, as well as the longest-serving female chief minister in Indian history, she served for a period of 15 years beginning in 1998. Dikshit led the Indian National 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 (Akhilesh Yadav was announced as candidate). She was appointed president of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee on 10 January 2019 to lead the general election in Delhi for Congress and remained in office until her death in July later that year.

Early years

Sheila Kapoor was born on 31 March 1938 in the city of Kapurthala in the Kapurthala Princely State of British India (now in Punjab, India) into a Punjabi Hindu 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.