Siddaramaiah or DK Shivakumar? Ball in Congress high command's court, swearing-in on May 18

The swearing-in for the chief minister will be held on May 18 and all like-minded parties will be invited, sources said

As the Karnataka Congress passed a unanimous resolution authorizing the party's national president Mallikarjun Kharge to select the next chief minister, the ball now is in party high command's court.

As DK Shivakumar refused to go to Delhi on Monday, the party leadership is expected to hold a meeting with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the national capital t finalise the decision. The swearing-in for the chief minister will be held on May 18 and all like-minded parties will be invited.

The meeting of newly-elected party legislators was held on the late evening of Sunady that ran weel into the wee hours of Monday, which coincided with DK Shivakumar's birthday on Monday, May 15. When asked if there were any gifts being planned for Siddaramaiah or DK Shivakumar on the latter's birthday, Surjewala said he was not a party to those discussions.

"I am a simple worker to the Congress who stood out with all my legislatures. We were sitting together and planning the future of Karnataka which is more important to us. We also celebrated DK Shivakumar's birthday together," he said.

DKS, Siddaramaiah — DK Shiavakumar cutting the cake on his birthday on MondayTwitter / DK Shivakumar

As the next CM's selection hangs in the balance, Shivakumar tweeted a picture celebrating his birthday with Siddaramaiah and his other party colleagues at hotel. Former Maharashtra chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and party leaders Jitendra Singh and Deepak Babaria were present in the meeting as observers.

KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh and others also attended the meeting. The team would reportedly head to New Delhi and hold discussions with Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, and Rahul Gandhi.

In the May 10 elections to the 224-member assembly, the Congress scored an emphatic victory with 135 seats, while the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the former prime minister HD Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) secured 66 and 19, respectively.

Despite several formulas on the table, such as splitting the five-year term between Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah, these were not mentioned at the meeting.