Siddaramaiah Meets Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi In Delhi
New Delhi: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former party president Rahul Gandhi at their residence.
Mr Siddaramaiah is in the national capital to discuss matters related to his cabinet expansion, his first meeting with Sonia Gandhi since the Congress formed the government in the southern state.
The Karnataka Chief Minister is known to have assured the CPP leader of good governance in the state and thanked him for his guidance and campaigning during the assembly elections.
Senior Congress leaders held discussions with Siddaramaiah and his deputy minister DK Sivakumar on Thursday regarding the expansion of the state cabinet.
The leaders met Congress General Secretary in charge of Karnataka Randeep Surjewala, Party General Secretary KC Venugopal and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.
Sources said the Karnataka cabinet is likely to include 20 more ministers and another round of talks will be held before it concludes.
Mr Siddaramaiah and Mr Sivakumar were sworn in as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively on May 20 along with eight Cabinet Ministers. The Congress top has approved the first list of about 28 ministers against the earlier plan. Members of the Legislature in the Cabinet.
Karnataka can have a maximum of 34 ministers and the Congress is struggling to accommodate all aspirants.
Sources said that only the names of senior MLAs representing all sections were allowed and there was no objection from any side regarding the selection.
Differences between Mr Siddaramaiah and Mr Sivakumar are emerging over names of potential ministers, with both pushing the MLAs’ case closer to them.