Sheila Dikshit is No more : Last rites at 2.30 pm tomorrow

KS Diwan/ royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh

Sheila Dikshit, Delhi’s longest serving chief minister and a senior Congress leader, died on Saturday at the age of 81.

A family member of former three-time Delhi Chief Minister said that “she had not been feeling well and was rushed to Escorts hospital in the morning. Later, she slipped into coma following which she passed away”

She suffered a cardiac arrest and breathed her last around 3.55 pm. “Mrs Sheila Dixit was brought in the morning of July 20 to Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, Okhla, in a critical condition with a cardiac arrest,” the hospital said in a statement.

Widely credited for transforming the face of Delhi, Dikshit was at the helm of Delhi affairs for 15 years from 1998 to 2013. She also served as the governor of Kerala. A close associate of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and a minister in his cabinet, Dikshit became a Member of Parliament for the first time from Kannauj Lok Sabha seat in Uttar
Pradesh.

Dikshit had replaced former Union Minister Ajay Maken to steer the Congress in the national capital. Delhi assembly elections were due in early next year and Shiela Dikshit was reviving Congress in the national capital