New Delhi, Mar 4 (TOI): Former Delhi chief minister and senior Congress leader Sheila Diskhit has been appointed as the new governor of Kerala on Tuesday, according to ABP News report. This follows the resignation of the current Kerala governor Nikhil Kumar.
Dikshit served as Delhi's chief minister from 1998 to 2013 before she lost to Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal in the December 2013 assembly polls. She lost her assembly seat by over 20,000 votes.
The former CM had represented UP's Kannauj parliamentary constituency between 1984 and 1989.
Dikshit faces several graft charges against her including involvement in the 2010 Commonwealth Games that were held in the city and irregularities in Delhi Technological University admissions. The DTU case is related to the recruitment process in 2012 in connection to the vacancies advertised in December 2011.
In a recent order the Delhi high court said Sheila Dikshit will have to defend herself in a graft case and did away with Delhi government pursuing the appeal filed by her administration in 2013 against the trial court order for lodging an FIR against her.
Days before quitting, the Arvind Kejriwal government had on February 14 (when it resigned) moved the high court seeking to take back the appeal filed by then Congress government headed by Dikshit.
Dikshit had moved the high court opposing the plea of the Kejriwal government and had also sought her impleadment in the matter.
AAP government had said Dikshit will have to defend herself as she is no more the CM and the government lacked the "locus standi" to fight for her.