Sheila Dikshit resigns as Delhi CM

www.mangaloretoday.com

New Delhi, Dec 8, 2013: Sheila Dikshit, Delhi’s chief minister for 15 years, resigned Sunday after the Congress was routed in assembly elections, with she herself set to lose to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal.

Dikshit submitted her resignation to Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung as vote count showed that the Congress may not win even a dozen seats in the 70-member assembly.

"Bewakoof hain na hum (we are idiots, right?)" she snapped at reporters who asked if the Congress had failed to read the mood of the city it has governed for 15 years.

Voters turned away from the Congress and to the newly-formed Aam Aadmi Party (AP), headed by Arvind Kejriwal, a former tax inspector and anti-corruption campaigner.  

Ms Dikshit, 75, had sought a fourth straight term as chief minister. Her party was left with barely 10 of the city’s 70 assembly seats; Ms Dikshit was trailing in her constituency of New Delhi behind Mr Kejriwal, 44.

Just days before Delhi, Ms Dikshit denounced the AAP as "a group of broom-wielding men from Ghaziabad."

That proved to be a gross miscalculation.

The record 65.86 percent turnout in Delhi was driven considerably by an enthusiasm for the entry of a new party, analysts said, one that connected with voters through its promise to reboot politics to delete corruption and deliver accountability.