Sushma Swaraj will, perhaps rightly, be best remembered for being the fairy godmother to overseas Indians in distress during her tenure as external affairs minister (2014-2019). But long before that, Swaraj was one of three BJP leaders who held the chief minister's post in the first government in Delhi after it became the National Capital Territory in 1993. Swaraj died late on August 6.
It can be stated that a chapter in Delhi politics is effectively over now as all four people who held the chief minister's post in the first decade of the National Capital Territory—Madan Lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma, Sushma Swaraj and Sheila Dikshit—are no more. Of these, Khurana, Swaraj and Dikshit have died in the past 11 months.
Sheila Dikshit was the longest-serving chief minister of the quartet, winning three successive Assembly elections (1998, 2003 and 2008). She was also credited with transforming the face of Delhi in terms of amenities and infrastructure. Dikshit died on July 20 this year at the age of 81.
The name of Madan Lal Khurana seems to command lesser attention than it should. Khurana was the first chief minister of Delhi after NCT status. The BJP came to power in December 1993, winning 49 of the 70 Assembly seats—its best electoral performance in Delhi till date. Khurana resigned from the chief minister's post in February 1996 following allegations against him in the Jain Hawala case.
While he was rehabilitated by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who made him parliamentary affairs minister in 1998, Khurana had a frayed relationship with Sahib Singh Verma, his successor as Delhi chief minister. Khurana attempted a return to Delhi politics in 2003, but the National Capital sided with Dikshit in the elections that year. Khurana died on October 28, 2018, at the age of 82.
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The tenure of Sushma Swaraj as Delhi chief minister was the shortest among the BJP leaders. She held office from October to December 1998, a period of 52 days. Swaraj was virtually air-dropped into Delhi politics by the BJP; she had been information and broadcasting minister in the Vajpayee government till then. Swaraj's tenure was too brief to talk about administrative achievements as she was engaged in a re-election battle against Dikshit, who was leading the Congress.
Verma died in a car accident on the Jaipur-Delhi highway in 2007. Verma's tenure as Delhi chief minister from 1996 to 1998 was a torrid time for the BJP. Towards to the end of his tenure, Delhi was rocked by a crime wave and also protests over skyrocketing onion prices. The protests and resulting unpopularity led to the BJP asking Verma to resign, making way for Swaraj.