Sheila Dikshit, a former three-term Chief Minister of Delhi, was today appointed Governor of Kerala within three months of her defeat in the recent Assembly polls. Highly placed sources said tonight that 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 Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in the morning and the decision to make her Kerala Governor was conveyed to her.

Nikhil 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, Dikshit suffered an ignominious defeat from New Delhi seat at the hands of Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal. Kejriwal, who succeeded Dikshit and has since resigned over the Jan Lokpal issue, 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 Kannauj Parliamentary Constituency of Uttar Pradesh during the period between 1984 and 1989.

RJD President Lalu Prasad visited Nikhil Kumar's home in Patna setting off speculation of his contesting the Aurangabad Parliamentary seat. RJD and Congress sources confirmed the visit of Prasad to seek the blessings of Kumar's mother Kishori Sinha and to meet the Kerala Governor. Kumar is son of veteran Congress leader and former Bihar chief minister Satyendra Narayan Singh. Kumar could not be contacted as his mobile was switched off. 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 after RJD chief offered 11 seats to Congress and 1 to NCP and sought a final response.