A Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson on Tuesday night said that 75-year-old Dikshit succeeds Nikhil Kumar, a former Delhi Police Commissioner, who resigned on Tuesday.
The resignation of 72-year-old Kumar, who took over as Governor of Kerala in March last year, has been accepted. Kumar was earlier Governor of Nagaland from October 2009.
Earlier in the day, Dikshit, a senior Congress leader, had met Union minister Sushilkumar Shinde and the decision to make her Kerala Governor was conveyed to her.
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.
Earlier, RJD President Lalu Prasad visited 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 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. 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.