Former chief minister of Delhi and senior Congress leader Sheila Dikshit passed away in Delhi on Saturday at the age of 81 years.
On Saturday morning, she was admitted in a critical condition to Escorts hospital in the capital following cardiac arrest.
A multi-disciplinary team of doctors carried out the advanced resuscitative measures. Her condition stabilised temporarily. However, she had another cardiac arrest and despite all the resuscitative efforts, passed away at 3:55pm, hospital said.
Her cremation is scheduled to take place at Delhi’s Nigam Bodh ghat at 2 pm on Sunday.
Dikshit served as the chief minister of Delhi for three terms from 1998 to 2013. She was the longest serving chief minister of Delhi.
In the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, under her leadership, the Congress party managed to push AAP candidates on the third place in five of the seven seats in Delhi, besides registering growth in its vote share.
In January this year, the three-time former Delhi chief minister was appointed president of the city unit after the incumbent Ajay Maken stepped down citing health issues.
Despite being an octagenarian, Dikshit led the party in Lok Sabha polls and herself contested against Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari from the North East Delhi seat. She lost by over 3.66 lakh votes.
Dikshit became an MP for the first time from Kannauj Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh in 1984. She was also a close associate of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and a minister in his cabinet.
President Ram Nath Kovind extended his condolences to the family of the Congress leader and said that her term was a period of momentous transformation for the capital.