Sheila Dikshit appointed Governor of Kerala

New Delhi: Sheila Dikshit, the former three-term Chief Minister of Delhi, was yesterday night appointed Governor of Kerala within three months of her defeat in the recent Assembly polls.

A Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson said that 75-year-old Dikshit succeeds Nikhil Kumar, a former Delhi Police Commissioner, who resigned yesterday.

The resignation of 72-year-old Kumar, who took over as Governor of Kerala in March last year, has been accepted.

Mr Kumar was earlier Governor of Nagaland from October 2009.

Earlier in the day, Sheila Dikshit, a senior Congress leader, had met Union minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, who conveyed the decision that she will be made Governor of Kerala.

During the Delhi Assembly elections in December last, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal defeated Mrs Dikshit from the New Delhi seat.

Arvind Kejriwal, who succeeded Sheila Dikshit and has since resigned over the Jan Lokpal issue, won by more than 22,000 votes. The Congress managed to bag eight seats in a House of 70.

Mrs Dikshit served as Chief Minister from 1998 to 2013 in Delhi. She had also represented Kannauj Parliamentary Constituency of Uttar Pradesh during the period between 1984 and 1989.

Earlier, RJD President Lalu Prasad visited the home of 72-year-old Kumar in Patna setting off speculation of his contesting the Aurangabad Parliamentary seat.

RJD and Congress sources confirmed the visit of Mr Prasad to seek the blessings of Mr Kumar's mother Kishori Sinha and to meet the Kerala Governor. Mr Kumar is son of veteran Congress leader and former Bihar chief minister Satyendra Narayan Singh.

He had lost the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Aurangabad to Sushil Kumar Singh. Aurangabad with an overwhelming population of Rajputs is popularly called 'Chittorgarh of Bihar'.

The alliance between Congress and RJD is yet to be formalised. The RJD chief has offered 11 seats to Congress and 1 to NCP and has sought a final response.