Several top Congress leaders from party president Mallikarjun Kharge to former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were involved in hectic parleys with Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar for the past two day, which finally helped break the logjam over the top post in Karnataka.

Ending days of suspense, the Congress on Thursday announced Siddaramaiah as the next chief minister and Karnataka president Shivakumar as his only deputy in the soon-to-formed cabinet.