New Delhi: Former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has been appointed the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president after Ajay Maken resigned from the post last week citing ill-health.

Reacting to the development, Dikshit said, "I am honoured that the party has given me this opportunity."

Maken took to Twitter to congratulate Dikshit, saying that under her leadership the Congress party will play the role of a powerful opposition against the governments in the national capital and at the Centre.

शीला दीक्षित जी को पुन: प्रदेश कांग्रेस अध्यक्ष बनने पर बधाई व शुभकामनाएँ!उनके आधीन,मुझे संसदीय सचिव एवं कैबिनेट मंत्री के रूप में काम करके सीखने का सुअवसर मिला!मुझे विश्वास है कि शीला जी की अगुआई में हम,मोदी+केजरीवाल सरकारों के विरोध में एक सशक्त विपक्ष की भूमिका निभाएँगे! pic.twitter.com/lFxuG2ScRE — Ajay Maken (@ajaymaken) January 10, 2019

In the past five years, Dikshit's services were used by the party first in Kerala as Governor and later in Uttar Pradesh as the chief ministerial face of an aborted poll campaign. Having recuperated from a heart ailment, Dikshit has said even on the public forums that she is not averse to returning to Delhi politics, if the leadership desired so.

Critics point that Maken’s offer to resign on health grounds was largely to offset the old guard’s attempts of having some kind of truck with the AAP. But this desire for alliance would now get much diluted after the just-concluded round of Assembly elections. The polls held in the five states have added greater value to the perception that the AAP has no presence outside Delhi.

Dikshit, 80, has been a three-time chief minister of Delhi.