New Delhi/Bengaluru: Congress top brass is likely to approve the swearing in of around 20 more ministers on Friday after Thursday discussions with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar over expansion of the state Cabinet, sources said.
Amid portfolio allocation for the already sworn-in ministers dragging on, the top Karnataka Congress duo met Congress general secretary in-charge for Karnataka Randeep Surjewala and the party's general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal before they the party president Mallikarjun Kharge separately at the latter's residence.
The last meeting on Thursday took place at the grand old party's Gurudwara Rakabganj Road office where Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar along with Surjewala discussed the names that could be included in the expanded Cabinet of the state, they said. Around 20 more ministers are likely to be inducted in the Karnataka Cabinet. Another round of discussions will be held on Friday before the state cabinet is finalised, sources added.
Shivakumar had been camping in Delhi since Wednesday evening while Siddaramaiah arrived later in the night. In the meetings, they brainstormed on drawing a balance between all sections, groups, communities and regions. The race to cabinet berths has become hectic ever since Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar were sworn in as Karnataka's CM and deputy CM respectively along with eight cabinet ministers on May 20.
While the ministers have not yet been allocated their portfolios, the lobbying for portfolios are also on with seniors vying for key ministries. In the first round of swearing-in, Congress which was expected to approve full cabinet approved a fourth of sanctioned cabinet strength. Karnataka can have a maximum of 34 ministers and the Congress will find it difficult to accommodate all the aspirants.
Sources said the names of only those MLAs were cleared who represented all sections and were senior-most and there were no objections from any side over the choice. Differences between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar are emerging over names of probable ministers with both pushing the case of MLAs close to them. (with PTI inputs)
