Siddaramaiah set to become new Karnataka CM; DK Shivakumar his deputy

New Delhi: Amid a race for the Karnataka chief minister's post, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday met party president Mallikarjun Kharge and is learned to have conveyed that the chief minister of Karnataka will be as per the choice of the newly elected legislators.

Going by Gandhi's decision, Siddaramaiah is set to become the new chief minister. Another CM aspirant Karnataka PCC president DK Shivakumar may be designated as deputy chief minister with important portfolio.

While Siddaramaiah is in Delhi for the last couple of days, Shivakumar arrived in the national capital Tuesday afternoon. 

Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar are meeting Kharge over government formation in Karnataka.

In just-concluded Assembly elections, the Congress scored an emphatic victory with 135 seats while the ruling BJP and the former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) secured 66 and 19 seats, respectively.