Sheila Dikshit appointed Kerala governor

Sheila Dikshit, a former three-term chief minister of Delhi, was on Tuesday appointed governor of Kerala within three months of her defeat in the Assembly polls. Sources said the decision has been conveyed to 75-year-old Dikshit, who will succeed Nikhil Kumar, a former Delhi Police Commissioner.

Dikshit, a senior Congress leader, met Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in the morning and the decision to make her the Kerala governor was conveyed to her.

Kumar is resigning and is expected to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from the Aurangabad seat in Bihar, which he had won in 2004.

During the Delhi Assembly elections in December last year, Dikshit suffered an ignominious defeat from New Delhi seat at the hands of Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal. Kejriwal won by more than 22,000 votes. The Congress came a poor third bagging eight seats in a House of 70.

Dikshit served as chief minister from 1998 to 2013 in Delhi. She had also represented the Kannauj parliamentary Constituency of Uttar Pradesh during the period between 1984 and 1989.