Sheila Dikshit, the Congress veteran who served three terms as Delhi’s chief minister, died on Saturday afternoon at a private hospital in the capital after a cardiac arrest. She was 81. The Delhi government announced two days of mourning, and she was to be given a state funeral at Nigambodh Ghat on Sunday.

Her final hours

According to the Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, she was brought in on Saturday morning in a critical state after a cardiac arrest. Doctors from several specialities tried advanced resuscitation and her condition briefly stabilised, but she suffered a second arrest and died at 3.55 pm on July 20, 2019, the hospital said.

Her body was kept at her home in Nizamuddin East, where leaders from across the political spectrum came to pay respects. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited along with Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari. Others included UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Congress leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia and Ahmed Patel, BJP’s Vijay Goel and CPI(M) leaders Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat.

Tributes

President Ram Nath Kovind and Modi both recalled the “momentous transformation” of Delhi under her, and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu called her a good administrator. Modi tweeted that she had a warm and affable personality and had made a noteworthy contribution to the city’s development. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in a letter to her son Sandeep Dikshit, said she was the only woman chief minister in India to lead her party to three successive assembly wins. Rahul Gandhi said he was devastated, calling her a “beloved daughter of the Congress Party”. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also condoled her death, and LK Advani said she would be remembered as “a fine human being”.

A long career

Born in Kapurthala, Punjab, in 1938, Dikshit studied at Convent of Jesus and Mary School in Delhi and Miranda House, University of Delhi. In July 1962 she married bureaucrat Vinod Dikshit, son of Uma Shankar Dikshit, who joined Indira Gandhi’s cabinet as a minister in 1971 and was later Governor of Karnataka and West Bengal.

She first entered the Lok Sabha from Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh in 1984, was a minister under Rajiv Gandhi and later served as Governor of Kerala. As Delhi chief minister for 15 years, from 1998 to 2013, she led the Congress to victories in 1998, 2003 and 2008, pushed large infrastructure projects, moved public transport to CNG and ran welfare schemes with resident welfare associations. She represented the New Delhi seat in the assembly, served as Delhi Congress president, and had lost the recent Lok Sabha election from North-East Delhi.

See also: Congress | Political leaders

Originally published on 21 July 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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