Sheila Dikshit new Kerala governor, Telangana formation on June 2

NEW DELHI: Former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit will be the new governor of Kerala. She will replace Nikhil Kumar who resigned as governor earlier in the day and plans to return to active politics by contesting a Lok Sabha seat from Bihar.

Confirming the news, a home ministry official also said June 2 has been fixed as the appointed date for formation of Telangana state. This means the Telangana state will officially come into being on June 2, while Andhra Pradesh will go to polls as one state, with seats to be subsequently divided between Seemandhara and Telangana when both states come into being on June 2.

The gap between the gazette notification and appointed date when states of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand were formed was also around three months. The gazette notification for Telangana formation was done on March 1, but the same was silent on the appointed date for the new state that formalises the bifurcation.

By announcing the appointed date of Telangana on Tuesday night, the government has beaten the model code of conduct which comes into effect from Wednesday when the Election Commission will notify the polls.

“The new state of Telangana will officially be formed on June 2,” a top MHA official confirmed. Former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had meanwhile met Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde at 1pm on Tuesday where she was informed by Shinde of her impending appointment as the Kerala governor and the same was decided upon on Tuesday night, the MHA official added.

The decision to make Dikshit governor was under active consideration of the Centre after Congress president Sonia Gandhi met Dikshit a few days ago. Earlier, there were reports about Dikshit being fielded for Rajya Sabha elections, something which she denied. In a recent interview to ET, the three-term Delhi CM had said her government had lost in the recent polls due to internal sabotage and AAP's false propaganda.