Sheila Dikshit was dragged out of retirement by Congress and named its choice for UP Chief Minister.
Sheila Dikshit, the three-time Chief Minister who was named by her Congress party as its candidate for the top job in Uttar Pradesh, said today that she would "gracefully withdraw", now that an alliance between her party and the Samajwadi Party is official.
"I would like to gracefully withdraw. We can't have two chief ministerial candidates," Ms Dikshit said today as Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad confirmed the party's alliance with Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for the Uttar Pradesh election in February-March.
The 78-year-old had said that she would be happy to step away if a tie-up crystallized. Significantly, she admitted that she had neither been consulted nor was she consulted on the alliance.
The announcement came from her own party just a day after Akhilesh Yadav won the rights to Samajwadi's symbol "cycle" and triumphed over his father Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Asked to explain the Congress' campaign slogan "27
saal, UP
behal (27 years, UP struggling)"- an all-encompassing dig that also includes the ruling Samajwadi Party - Ms Dikshit replied: "It's not that Akhilesh has done everything good but we can do even better if we come together."
Ms Dikshit was dragged out of retirement by the Congress and named its choice for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister despite her reservations.
In recent weeks, the Congress veteran was repeatedly jabbed when her party targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on what is dubbed the "Sahara-Birla diaries" or kickbacks allegedly paid to top politicians. The Congress tweeted details from the diaries that also happened to include the former Delhi Chief Minister. Ms Dikshit was quoted as saying she was "surprised" and rejected the allegations against her, weakening her party's campaign against the PM.