Sheila Dikshit, who was chief minister of Delhi for 15 years, will be the chief ministerial candidate of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, the party announced yesterday.
The announcement was made by Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi at the party headquarters.
“For the first time your assumption has proved right,” he said, referring to media speculation that Dikshit, ousted from power in Delhi in December 2013, would be the face of the Congress in the northern state.
Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said corruption allegations against the 78-year-old Dikshit did not matter since the Bharatiya Janata Party’s chief ministers in other states too faced similar charges.
Election strategist Prashant Kishor had recommended that Dikshit should play a major role in the party’s poll campaign in Uttar Pradesh as she is a prominent Brahmin face and could help the Congress regain support of the electorally sizeable community.
Kishor, accorded considerable credit for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s smash victory in 2014, is now working with the Congress.
Dikshit is the daughter-in-law of prominent Congress leader from the state Uma Shankar Dikshit, who was a Brahmin face and had served as a federal minister and governor for a long time.
Earlier this month, Dikshit had said as Uttar Pradesh’s “daughter-in-law” she was ready to play any role in the state.
She had met party president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi last month during which she was said to have been sounded by them for a leading role in Uttar Pradesh.
The Brahmin community, a traditional vote bank of the Congress, had shifted allegiance to the BJP and a section in Congress feels it should make efforts to win back the support of the community.
A large chunk of Brahmin votes had also gone to former chief minister Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party in the past when she gave tickets to many candidates belonging to the community.
The community’s support determines the poll outcome in several seats in central and eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Dikshit was considered an efficient administrator in Delhi. When there were doubts about successfully hosting the Commonwealth Games of 2010, she was asked by the central government to undo the mess. However, projects like a special bus-only corridor, built at great cost only to result in daily traffic jams, stained her final years in office.
In 2013, she was defeated by political novice Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party. Their emphasis on fighting corruption and ridding Delhi of the sort of VIP culture associated with the Congress helped them score a huge victory.
The election results also threatened to derail Dikshit’s career and she was taken out of Delhi and posted as the governor in Kerala. But even that term lasted only five months. 
Just a day ago, the Congress announced Bollywood actor-turned politician Raj Babbar as the Uttar Pradesh unit president. 
Meanwhile the BJP said making Babbar the chief of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh will not help the party in the assembly elections next year.
BJP leader Keshav Prasad Maurya, who heads the Uttar Pradesh unit of the party, told reporters in Gorakhpur district that even Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi will not be able to revive the fortunes of the Congress in the state.
“It is a leaderless and a bankrupt party which neither has any policies nor direction,” said Maurya, who represents Phulpur constituency in Allahabad district in the Lok Sabha.
The BJP has been working towards ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’ (Congress-free India) at the national level and “SP- (Samajwadi Party) and BSP-Mukt UP,” he said.
Maurya said the Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s government was the worst ever in the history of Uttar Pradesh.
The BJP will ensure that the corrupt, the casteist and the criminal elements are voted out in the assembly elections, he said.
Maurya was in Gorakhpur to oversee preparations for a public rally to be addressed by Modi on July 22.