HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy will be leaving for New Delhi on Friday evening to invite AICC president Sonia Gandhi for the `Rededication Day' celebrations on May 14.

Dr. Reddy will be completing three years of his term on the day and the Congress is planning to organise a public meeting to mark the event.

Though he will be discussing the proposed Cabinet expansion with Ms. Gandhi and other AICC leaders in New Delhi on Saturday, it is clear that the exercise will not take place this month.

Sources close to the Chief Minister said the expansion would be either in the first week or, preferably, on May 14 itself when Ms. Gandhi would be present. Dr. Reddy would be away in the U.S. for four days in the second week of May to attend the World Agriculture Conference at Chicago on May 7 as also meetings of Telugu associations. Dr. Reddy is said to be not so keen on to fill all the vacancies and limit the number of entrants. There are only 24 members in the Council of Ministers, including the Chief Minister, and Dr. Reddy can ultimately expand the size of his Ministry to 44.

He will also be seeking the clearance of the Congress high command to drop at least four Ministers for their poor track record.

First-timers hopeful

Some of the partymen who made their debut in the legislature are hopeful that there would be no bar on inducting them in spite of the stand taken by the AICC that first-time MLAs and MLCs should not be inducted.

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