UP for a Challenge

From Lutyens Delhi to Lucknow, Sheila Dikshit talks about her political journey, her favourite pastime and what keeps her going.

- Soni Mishra

A relaxed Sunday morning is giving way to a lazy afternoon. The only sounds in the fourth floor apartment of a posh housing complex in central Delhi come from the kitchen. Former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit is checking on what's cooking. A help, just back from grocery shopping, comes to her with the expenses. And like a scrupulous housewife who keeps track of every penny, she asks him in detail about how much money was spent on what and takes the balance from him.

This meticulousness of hers was evident in the way Dikshit ran Delhi for 15 years. Also, this very quality, perhaps, was what brought her to the notice of former prime minister Indira Gandhi while Dikshit was assisting her father-in-law, the legendary Uttar Pradesh Congress leader Uma Shankar Dikshit. Now, as she was settling down into a sort of political retirement, she was brought back into the limelight as the Congress’s chief ministerial candidate for the 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Done with her kitchen supervision, Dikshit settles down on a sofa in the tastefully done-up living room of her daughter Latika's apartment for the interview. Her house in Nizamuddin East, from where you can see the Humayun’s Tomb, is on rent, she informs. “From here, you can see Maharaja Agrasen’s Baoli,” she says.

Dressed in a fawn-coloured cotton sari, which is neatly pleated, and her grey hair done in a simple bun, the 78-year-old looks relaxed. Dikshit is enjoying a few moments of calm before she jumps into the next phase of the poll campaign. Soon, she will be spending more time in Lucknow, where she has rented a house.