The Hindu : Karnataka News : Dharam Singh discusses Ministry expansion with Sonia

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 23, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Dharam Singh discusses Ministry expansion with Sonia

By S. Rajendran

BANGALORE, AUG. 22. The Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, who is in New Delhi, is expected to call on the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, again on Monday and finalise the expansion of his nearly three-month-old Ministry.

This will be the second expansion and the Chief Minister is expected to add 22 more Ministers with 11 each drawn from the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular).

Sources in the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) camps told The Hindu that the swearing-in ceremony would be held on Wednesday or on Saturday and efforts would be made to ensure that the exercise was completed before the weekend.

The sources said the Chief Minister, who met the Congress president today, held a preliminary discussion on the Ministry expansion but it was the Uma Bharati case that took the centre-stage. Should there be any serious developments relating to that case, there were chances that the Ministry expansion would be relegated to the background, at least for the present, they said.

The sources said Ms. Sonia Gandhi had sought details from Mr. Dharam Singh on the Karnataka police filing a charge-sheet against Ms. Uma Bharati and several others who had hoisted the National Tricolour at the Idgah Maidan in Hubli in 1994.

Almost ready

While the Janata Dal(S) was almost ready with its list of legislators to be accommodated in the Dharam Singh-led coalition Ministry, the Congress is yet to come up with its list.

While the Janata Dal(S) President and the former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, holds consultations with some senior leaders before finalising the list of his party members for the ministerial berths, the Congress list is finalised by Ms. Sonia Gandhi in consultation with Mr. Dharam Singh, the Political Secretary to the Congress President, Ahmed Patel, and the party General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka, Vilas Rao Deshmukh. Mr. Dharam Singh would hold discussions with Mr. Ahmed Patel and Mr. Deshmukh before his meeting with Ms. Sonia Gandhi on Monday.

Maharashtra pattern

The Janata Dal(S) has said that it will not retract from its demand that the Maharashtra pattern be followed in the allocation of portfolios to the new Ministers apart from the posts in the various boards and corporations.

Meanwhile, D.K. Shivakumar, a confidante of the former Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, is said to have decided not to stake his claim for a berth in the Ministry following a request from the Chief Minister.

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