Senior Congress leader and former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit will take over as Governor of Kerala after incumbent Nikhil Kumar resigned to contest Lok Sabha elections from Bihar.
Kumar is likely to contest from Aurangabad, a traditional Congress stronghold in Bihar that has long been represented by his family. He won the 2004 elections from there but lost in 2009.
Kumar is son of veteran Congress leader and former Bihar Chief Minister Satyendra Narayan Singh.
The outgoing Governor informed newspersons in Kochi of his decision on his arrival there from Delhi on Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, reports from New Delhi quoted a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson as saying that 75-year-old Sheila Dikshit would succeed Kumar.
Earlier in the day, she had met Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde when the decision to make her Governor of the southern State was officially conveyed to her.