- published: 11 May 2012
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Sheila Dikshit (née Kapoor; occasionally anglicised Dixit; born 31 March 1938) is an Indian politician who was the Chief Minister of Delhi from 1998 to 2013. She is a member of the Indian National Congress. Dikshit led the Congress to three consecutive electoral victories in Delhi. In December 2013 elections to the Delhi Legislative Assembly, Dikshit was defeated in New Delhi constituency by Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal, who briefly replaced her as Delhi's chief minister. Subsequently she was sworn in as Governor of Kerala on 11 March 2014. However, she resigned on 25 August 2014.
Sheila Dikshit was born on 31 March 1938 in Kapurthala, Punjab into a Punjabi Khatri family. 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.
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 on women. Earlier, in the early 1970s, she was chairperson of the Young Women's Association and was instrumental in the setting up two of most successful hostels for working women in Delhi. She is also the Secretary of the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust..