Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar meet top Congress leaders, discuss Cabinet expansion
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New Delhi: Siddaramaiah, the chief minister of Karnataka, and his deputy D.K. Shivakumar met with senior Congress leaders on Thursday to discuss the state's cabinet expansion.
On Wednesday night, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar arrived in the city separately.
On Thursday morning, the two leaders first met with K.C. Venugopal, the party's general secretary, at his apartment before travelling to the party's war room to meet with the top leaders.
Venugopal, state in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar then discussed 15 to 20 names of lawmakers who will be inducted in the state cabinet, sources said, adding that the meeting lasted for over three hours.
A party source said that the names of 20 ministerial probables were discussed and a final call will be taken by party President Mallikarjun Kharge once the names are sent to him.
The source said that most of the ministers are to be from the Siddamaraiah camp whereas Shivakumar will get at least three to four portfolios, including two big ones.
The decision on the names of the new ministers will be finalised by Friday evening after the two leaders also meet Kharge.
Besides Siddaramaian and Shivakumar, eight more ministers -- G. Parmeshwara, K.H. Muniyappa, K.J. George, M.B. Patil, Satish Jarkiholi, Priyanka Kharge, Ramalimga Reddy and B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan -- had taken oath on Saturday in Bengaluru.
Party sources said that Krishna Byre Gowda, Laxman Savadi, Lakshmi Hebbalkar, Saleem Ahmed, Santosh Lad, Dinesh Gundu Rao, H.K. Patil, Eshwar Khandre, Tanveer Sait, Dr H.C.Mahadevappa, B.K. Reddy and B.K. Hariprasad are among the probables.
With inputs from IANS