BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Sivakumar will leave separately for New Delhi on Wednesday, where they are expected to meet the Congress leadership to discuss cabinet expansion and allocation of portfolios to existing ministers.
According to the Chief Minister’s official schedule, Mr. Siddaramaiah will leave for Delhi by a special flight at 6:30 pm and will stay in the national capital tonight.

As per Mr Sivakumar’s tour programme, the Deputy Chief Minister will take an afternoon flight from Bengaluru and reach Delhi by evening.

He is scheduled to meet All India Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and other party leaders on Thursday and a return trip is open, it said.

Mr Siddaramaiah and Mr Sivakumar were sworn in as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively, and eight legislators were sworn in as Ministers on May 20. Ministers were not allotted portfolios after that.

According to Congress sources, the party top approved the first list of eight ministers against an earlier plan to include a larger number of legislators in the cabinet due to disagreements between Siddaramaiah and Sivakumar on some names. In New Delhi last week, ahead of the inauguration.

Mr. Siddaramaiah

As the sanctioned strength of the Karnataka cabinet is 34, there is a lot of interest for the ministerial post.