Berth denial to son raises questions on Sheila’s clout

Even a clean sweep for the Congress in Delhi has not meant that chief minister Sheila Dikshit has her way. Political grapevine has it that the Congress was about to induct CM’s son Sandeep Dikshit into the council of ministers.

But it did not happen. Sandeep, a second time MP from East Delhi, had humbled BJP rival cricketer-turned-politician Chetan Chauhan by 2.41 lakh votes, the highest victory margin across the seven seats in Delhi. However, as the list of ministers-to-be was declared on Wednesday, it became clear that the CM's clout failed to get a ministerial berth for her son, at least for now.

Delhi Congress officials believed that as in the previous UPA term, a status quo would be maintained in terms of Delhi's representation in the Union council of ministers with two ministerial berths from the national capital. There was some buzz that following the induction of Chandni Chowk MP Kapil Sibal as cabinet minister last Friday, New Delhi MP Ajay Maken would be the other face from the capital in the PM's team of ministers. Sibal and Maken were in the council of ministers in the last UPA government.

While Maken's name figured on the list of ministers of state (MoS) to be sworn-in on Thursday, the real surprise came with the name of Northwest Delhi MP Krishna Tirath figuring on the list of those who were to be sworn-in as MoS with independent charge. Like Maken, Tirath is also a second-time MP.

The friction between Maken and the Delhi CM is widely known. But Tirath's presence and Sandeep's absence from the list is making Congress members wonder if the party high command was indeed lending a deaf ear to the “invincible” Delhi chief minister.  Tirath, who was an MLA in the Delhi Assembly between 1984 and 2004 had been included in 1998 in the Dikshit government as minister for social welfare. However, he was a member of the CM's dissident group and was dropped from the state cabinet.