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Dikshit’s Delhi

Sheila Dikshit’s election as leader of the Delhi Congress legislature party is an acknowledgment of the extraordinary electoral performance of the third-time Chief Minister. The Congress led by the low-key Ms Dikshit won 42 of 69 Assembly seats — down by only five seats compared to 2003. It was a remarkable indication of a lack of anti-incumbency sentiment as regards Ms Dikshit. Ajay Kumar Malhotra, son of Bharatiya Janata Party’s Chief Ministerial candid ate Vijay Kumar Malhotra, summed up the mood when he admitted: “Against her anybody would have lost.” The Delhi Assembly may have only 70 seats but the city-State holds a symbolism far exceeding its size by virtue of being the seat of national political power. Delhi’s overarching, if surely overrated, significance explains as much the jubilation in the Congress camp as the sense of devastation within the BJP fold.

Ms Dikshit pulled off the near impossible in a State long thought to be the bastion of the BJP. Earlier, Delhi was home largely to post-Partition migrants and the trading classes which traditionally formed the core of the BJP’s support base. But in the past decade, Delhi (with an estimated current population of 17 million) has changed phenomenally — in part on account of a huge influx from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and in part due to the city-State’s emergence as a cultural, economic, and diplomatic hub. To her credit, Ms Dikshit was quick to grasp the implications of Delhi’s transformation from an overgrown village to a throbbing, prosperous cosmopolitan metropolis. The impressive network of flyovers and Metro rail, which are now part of Delhi’s landscape, has put the national capital alongside the world’s major cities. This major achievement is undoubtedly the contribution of Ms Dikshit’s administration. But what clearly endeared her administration to the Delhi public were the efforts made to facilitate quick and safe travel for the ordinary public. The experimental BRT (Bus Rapid Transport) corridor that facilitated unhindered movement of buses in parts of Delhi met with furious elite opposition. Yet the Congress has posted impressive wins along the corridor, again underscoring the popularity of the mass rapid transport schemes that Ms Dikshit’s administration has particularly prioritised. In relying on Mr. Malhotra, the BJP harked back to a past that Delhi had long left behind. In contrast, Ms Dikshit projected a modern, broad-minded vision that was in sync with the city’s demographic, generational, and cultural shifts, and it is this vision that has ultimately triumphed.

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