Sheila Dikshit is Congress’ UP chief minister candidate

Next year’s Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress on Thursday named Sheila Dikshit as its chief ministerial candidate. She will be up against Akhilesh Yadav of the SP and Mayawati of the BSP. The BJP is yet to name a CM candidate. The announcement is a departure from the Congress’s past and comes at the behest of poll strategist Prashant Kishore.

Party sources say Mr. Kishore had not just recommended a Brahmin face (to secure the support of this influential community), but had said that he worked best when he could plan a campaign around a personality, as he had done with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in 2015. And as he doing now for the Congress in Punjab with Captain Amarinder Singh.

Mr. Kishore’s first choice for U.P., of course, had been one of the Gandhi siblings, Rahul or Priyanka.

Announcing Ms Dikshit’s name, Congress general secretary in charge of U.P. Ghulam Nabi Azad cited her “experience and good work” in heading the Delhi Government for 15 years, and said Ms. Dikshit had been chosen because of her strong track record as chief minister of Delhi.