Atishi/Sheila Dixit (File)
Now the secret of who will be the Chief Minister of Delhi has been revealed. In Tuesday’s meeting of Aam Aadmi Party’s legislative body, Atishi, a cabinet minister and well-known female face of the party, was chosen as its leader. Atishi will be the third woman Chief Minister of Delhi. Earlier Sushma Swaraj of BJP and Sheila Dixit of Congress have been the Chief Ministers of Delhi. Sushma has been the Chief Minister of Delhi once and Sheila three times. Sheila Dixit is still called the face of Delhi’s development. During his tenure, capital Delhi has received gifts from several flyovers to metro expansion. Now it is expected that Delhi can create new dimensions of development under Atishi’s leadership.
Atishi is a dynamic woman leader of Aam Aadmi Party. During the jail stays of senior party leaders like AAP national coordinator Arvind Kejriwal, former deputy CM Manish Sisodia and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, Atishi’s activism has not only kept the Delhi government functioning on track, but also helped keep the party organized. He also showed his ability. Atishi went among the common people on the issue of electricity and water and also kept the flame of education revolution burning in the capital. She visited the schools and inspected the arrangements there and also sent the elderly on yatras.
Delhi in Sheila Dixit’s time
It is true that the Aam Aadmi Party, which emerged from the Anna movement in Delhi in 2013, wrested power from the Congress and Sheila Dixit and formed the government, but that does not diminish Sheila Dixit’s contribution to Delhi. During her three tenures spanning nearly 15 years, Sheila Dixit’s many decisions and schemes changed the face of Delhi. New facilities were given to the people of Delhi. Instead of flyovers, DTC’s CNG buses, Metro and Blue Line buses are a gift from the Sheila government. This gave a new impetus to Delhi and the efforts to control pollution also proved effective. Delhi’s new lifeline metro was started during the Sheila government.
The Congress party handed over the reins of Delhi to Sheila Dixit at a time when the BJP had Delhi leaders like Sahib Singh Verma, Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Madanlal Khurana in the capital, but Sheila Dixit showed her wisdom and strong will to win the Congress three times. Complete that and they formed their government. During this time, he laid the foundation of the Metro in the year 1998 and from 1998 to 2013, he provided 70 flyovers to the capital and freed ring road signals, making Delhi free from traffic jams. It was Sheila Dixit who gifted the signature bridge over the Yamuna in Delhi.
Delhi has hope from Atishi
Atishi holds many departments in the Delhi government. After Manish Sisodia went to jail, he was also given the responsibility of Education Minister. Before that he was in charge of PWD and Water Department. After the top leaders of the party went to jail, Atishi managed these three departments very well. From visiting schools, solving the water supply crisis in Delhi and then reforming all the systems under the PWD, he tried to live up to people’s expectations.
Manish’s teaching led the revolution
Atishi took forward the maintenance of Delhi’s schools, which was started by Manish Sisodia. This is the reason why Atishi is also called the leader of the education revolution in Delhi today along with Manish Sisodia. Wherever the public faced a problem in Delhi, Atishi went there and tried his best to solve the problems. It is expected that just like Sheila Dixit contributed as a woman Chief Minister of Delhi, Atishi is also committed to carry out development works as per the expectations of the public.
Atishi has less time to show his work
Atishi, an Oxford-educated and aggressively attacking opposition party, is Arvind Kejriwal’s most trusted leader. But Atishi has very little time to finish the work stalled due to political reasons in Delhi and show a new picture of development. Arvind Kejriwal has called for assembly elections to be held in Delhi along with Maharashtra and Jharkhand, in a sense, he would be able to stay on the chief minister’s chair for about two months and still have Atishi if the elections are held on time next year. It will take only 5 months to hold the elections. However, they can show glimpses of development even in such a short period of time if they wish.
