Shillong, Mar 8 (IANS): Veteran Congress leader and former Nagaland chief minister Senayangba Chubatoshi Jamir is to be appointed governor of Odisha, an official said Friday.

Jamir, 82, had earlier served as governor of Maharashtra and Goa. He has been chief minister of Nagaland five times - 1980, 1982-1986, 1989-90, 1993-1997, and 1997-2003.

A senior official from the ministry of home affairs said that the file for appointing Jamir the Odisha governor has been forwarded for President Pranab Mukherjee's assent.

Jamir will replace Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare.

"I have been informed by the ministry of home affairs that I will be appointed governor of Orissa, but I am yet to get the official confirmation," Jamir told IANS over phone from New Delhi.

The veteran Congress leader, who did not contest the recent assembly elections in Nagaland, was also one of the architects of modern Nagaland.

He was first nominated a member of the Lok Sabha in 1961 and appointed parliamentary secretary to then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who was also in-charge of external affairs. He was later elevated as deputy minister of railways; he also served in other ministries at the centre -- labour and rehabilitation, community development and cooperation, and food and agriculture.

Jamir was first elected to the Nagaland legislative assembly after his return from the centre in 1971.

There have been four failed attempts on Jamir's life by Naga rebels, who bitterly resent the role he played in integrating Nagaland with India.