The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on Saturday afternoon unanimously elected DK Shivakumar as its new leader.
Shivakumar's name was proposed by Siddaramaiah, the outgoing chief minister, and seconded by Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara before being approved by the legislators.
The meeting was overseen by AICC general secretaries K C Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala.
However, the CLP meeting to elect the new leader took a break, and top leaders including Siddaramaiah, Venugopal and Surjewala went into a huddle in a separate room, according to sources.
The CLP also passed a resolution thanking Siddaramaiah for his leadership and contributions to Karnataka and the Congress party.
"I have resigned from the post of Congress Legislature Party leader and Chief Minister. The decision to appoint the next leader has been left to the high command," said Siddaramaiah after leaving the CLP meeting.
Earlier, Shivakumar met Venugopal and Surjewala at a hotel ahead of the meeting.
The swearing-in ceremony of DK Shivakumar as the new Chief Minister will be held on June 3 at the Glass House of Lok Bhavan here, said Congress state unit working president G C Chandrashekhar.
Addressing a press conference here, the Rajya Sabha member said, initially, there was confusion regarding the venue.
Later, it was decided to hold it in the Governor's House.
"A decision has now been taken that the swearing-in ceremony will be held on June 3," Chandrashekhar said.
The MP said the exact time of oath taking ceremony will be finalised and announced later in the day.
According to him, there were discussions on booking around 10,000 to 15,000 buses from different parts of the state to bring people to Bengaluru for a large-scale event, but keeping the fuel crisis and the traffic congestion in mind it was cancelled.
"The swearing-in ceremony should not be extravagant. It should be conducted as simply as possible and should reflect a spirit of work and service rather than display or pomp. The party has taken a decision and issued directions that the event should be conducted in a simple manner," Chandrashekhar said.
He appealed to all party workers and supporters not to make efforts to rush to the venue and cooperate, so that there is no traffic congestion and no inconvenience to the public.
Siddaramaiah's resignation as Chief Minister was accepted and the Council of Ministers was dissolved by Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot on Friday.
Earlier in the day, Shivakumar met Governor Gehlot at Lok Bhavan here.
Sources said Shivakumar met the Governor to informally discuss the swearing-in of the new CM and the Council of Ministers, including the dates for it.
Subsequently, he also visited the Bengaluru unit of Sri Kadasiddeshwara Mutt (often referred to as the Ajjaiah Math).
Shivakumar has a deep, long-standing spiritual connection to the Math, which is actually located in Nonavinakere, Tumakuru district.