A nudge from Rajiv ends in a call from Manmohan for Tirath

“She is like my daughter. Since 1984,I have always been with her,” he added. “I told her she would win,that she shouldn’t lose heart.”

While Tirath was at a meeting on Thursday evening with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh where portfolios were distributed,party workers decked up her official residence at Harish Chandra Mathur Lane. Bouquets,hundreds of them,lined her living room,while colourful light bulbs cascaded down the parapets of the house.

Party workers,relatives,and neighbours sat in the lawn,waiting for her to arrive. They wanted to congratulate the Congress leader who won the Northwest parliamentary constituency,a newly-formed seat. Poll pundits had predicted she might not win. She was an outsider who lived in Karol Bagh and hardly knew the problems of outer Delhi,they said.

But party workers ensured Tirath became a known face. Her work,when she headed the social development ministry as an MLA years ago,was not forgotten either. She had built roads,and increased pension for widows.

During this campaign,her husband Vijay Tirath recalled,an old man told him how the road he sat on was constructed by Tirath when she was MLA. Vijay Tirath said: “People remember. All that has paid off.”

For Tirath,the Ministry of Women and Child Development,which was previously headed by Renuka Choudhary,is a ticket to serve people better. “I will start right away. I have many plans,” she told over the phone.

Tirath came into politics at the age of 29 after her father-in-law and former MP Sohan Lal Tirath died. She resigned from her government job as an income tax officer and contested her first elections. Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had at that time asked the family to let Tirath,the firebrand bahu,to continue the political legacy.

Tirath,with her trademark big bindi,jumped into the fire right away and never lost a single election. These polls were her seventh.

Daughter Jigisha Tirath Singh at times wished her mother was home more often. But then,growing up in a political family had taught them to adapt to public life,where the mother would hold meetings all day. But nights were reserved for the family. “All three daughters would assemble in her room and chat till 3 am,making up for the lost time,” Jigisha said.

Every morning,the 54-year-old has her cup,usually black tea with a dash of lemon,with her husband. They were married in 1976. She had come for work to Sohan Lal and he liked her. When Tirath forayed into politics,her husband supported her,even managed most of her work and ran her campaign. “I didn’t join politics because one was enough,” Vijay Tirath joked. He even bought the sari that Tirath wore on Thursday to the oath ceremony.

As party workers crowded in the lawn and the hallway,each had a different story to tell. A man recalled how Tirath was so courteous that she would cook them dinner and make chai herself.

“She knows all of us by name,” Satya Prakash Sharma,a local from the Kirari Vidhan Sabha,said. “We have known her for so many years. When it was decided she would contest from the Northwest,we worked 24 hours to ensure her win.”