CM, Shivakumar head to Delhi today to discuss Cabinet expansion with central leaders

BENGALURU: More than a week after the swearing-in ceremony, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will leave for New Delhi today to discuss expansion of the Cabinet with the party central leadership.

The CM, along with Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, is expected to meet Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and AICC general secretary K C Venugopal either today evening or on Thursday. Shivakumar is expected to leave in the afternoon while Siddaramaiah will leave in the evening.

Though 28 minister were to be sworn in along with the CM, it was scaled down to just eight after differences of opinion between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar on the choice of ministerial candidates. Both leaders have now sent separate lists to the central leaders and a final list will be picked. Meanwhile, hectic lobbying by senior leaders has started in both camps for plum portfolios and ministerial berths.

Among those in contention are B K Hariprasad, R B Thimmapur, Eshwar Khandre, K N Rajanna, Shivanand Patil, Salim Ahmed, N A Haris, Kaneez Fathima, Cheluvarayaswamy, Dinesh Gundurao, Krishna Byregowda, Byrathi Suresh, Magadi Balakrishna, Nagendra, Vinay Kulkarni, Madhu Bangarappa, Dr Ajay Singh, Laxmi Hebbalkar, Laxman Savadi, Raghavendra Hitnal, Tukaram, S S Mallikarjun, Raje Gowda, Srinivas, Shivalinge Gowda and Narendra Swamy.

Meanwhile, there is pressure from various districts which have elected more number of Congress MLAs with legislators including Chikkamagalur, Mysuru, Kodagu, Ballari, Vijayanagar, Chitradurga, Vijayapura and Kalaburagi apart from Belagavi and Bengaluru. Meanwhile, the Panchamsali-Lingayat community has also demanded five ministerial berths for candidates from the community.