Dikshit unlikely to stay on as CM

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit seems to have got a reprieve after Congress general secretary in charge of Delhi Ashok Gehlot meeting her today to admonish her and later dismissing her walk-out from a Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) executive committee meeting recently as a "mere fight in the family."

But some senior Congress leaders feel the death-knell has been sounded. They say even if Dikshit survives the latest assault, her exit, if not now, then at least six to eight months later, seems inevitable.

Dikshit, who has had an uninterrupted tenure as chief minister of Delhi for more than six years on the basis of her clean image and her rapport with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, fell out of favour with the central party leadership owing to bad political moves.

"Actually, she may find her position becoming so untenable that even if she survives this attempt to dethrone her, she will not be able to function like before," said a senior leader.

Gehlot has, according to sour-ces, filed a damaging report about her, who is said to be partial to bureaucrats than MLAs. The dissidents have alleged that Dikshit's walk-out reflected arrogance.

Dikshit have found herself in rough weather ever since she took on powerful AICC functionaries Ahmad Patel and Ambika Soni. Things went out of hand when she insisted in April 2004 that her son Sandeep be given the Lok Sabha ticket for the East Delhi constituency.

After that, in order to "balance" matters, it was easy to convince Gandhi to appoint Dikshit's arch rival Ram Babu Sharma as DPCC president.

With that, those against Dikshit found a rallying point. One of the accusations against Dikshit is her excessive dependence on the bureaucracy, and her refusal to ask it to bend the rules for Congress MLAs.

They accuse her of shielding erring bureaucrats, a charge reinforced by a very damaging scam in the sales tax department that broke out on the eve of the Budget session.

Dikshit's position weakened so much so that her nominees were withdrawn from the three statutory committees in the Assembly, a major victory for the dissidents. Dikshit and 10, Janpath went farther adrift when former loyalist Ajay Maken joined those ranged against her.

Maken's grouse was that his promising career in state politics had been cut short because Dikshit nominated him to the New Delhi parliamentary seat in order to ensure that Sandeep got the more winnable East Delhi.

As things stand now, Dikshit is awaiting summons from 10, Janpath to explain her position. The bad news for her is that round one has gone to her arch rivals.