Dikshit detractors fail to make a mark

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had the last laugh in her party circles even as she managed to fight anti-incumbency and steer the Congress to a record hattrick after grabbing almost all the seats for her loyalists.
    
Majority of her loyalists kept the faith reposed on them and romped home in the elections but the candidates whose names she opposed during ticket distribution failed to leave any mark and lost.
    
For instance, two-time sitting MLA Bheeshma Sharma, a known detractor of Dikshit, failed to retain his Ghonda seat in East Delhi where he was defeated by BJP candidate Sahab Singh Chouhan.
    
Sharma's candidature was opposed "tooth and nail" by Dikshit's camp but it was only after a deft interference by DPCC chief J P Aggarwal that his name was included in the list.
    
Aggarwal's assertion of power during the ticket distribution also strained the otherwise cordial relationship which both the DPCC chief and Dikshit shared.
    
Sitting MLA Vijay Lochav, another Dikshit baiter, also failed to woo his voters in Bijwasan constituency and lost to Satprakash, a newcomer from BJP.
    
S C Vats, a Congress stalwart who embarrassed the Congress government by recommending a CBI probe into the power "scam", was also out in the cold after the elections.
    
He lost to Shyamlal Garg in Shakur Basti, from where he had won last time.