Source: The Sangai Express / PTI
New Delhi, December 10 2008:
Shiela Dikshit, who steered the Congress to a historic hattrick in Delhi, was on Wednesday elected as the leader of Congress Legislature Party (CLP), paving way for her "third innings" as Chief Minister in the national Capital.
Dikshit was elected at a meeting of all the newly elected 42 party MLAs here this afternoon.
The meeting was attended among others by AICC general secretary Mohsina Kidwai, minister of state for finance PK Bansal and DPCC chief Jai Prakash Aggarwal.
At the meeting, sources said, a resolution supported by all the MLAs was placed which left the choice of the CLP leader to party chief Sonia Gandhi.
Kidwai contacted Gandhi, who apparently told the AICC general secretary about her wishes during the meeting and afterwards Dikshit was elected unanimously, they said.
"I am very happy today," a beaming Dikshit said.
Her election to the post this time was finalised in just a 90-minute meeting, compared to the week-long political drama in 2003 when she was made the Chief Minister.
Fighting anti-incumbency and a high-pitched BJP campaign on terrorism, Dikshit had managed to romp home for the third time on a plank of good governance and development.
Though Congress has not declared its Chief Ministerial candidate, the party had during campaigning given clear indication that if voted to power, Dikshit will have a "third innings".
Congress won the Assembly election 42-23 against BJP for a third consecutive term.