Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge to hold crucial meeting in Delhi on Karnataka Cabinet expansion

Bengaluru: AICC leader Rahul Gandhi will meet Chief Minister DK Shivakumar at his official residence in Delhi today evening around 8 pm to finalise the list of names to be sworn in as Karnataka’s new ministers in the next couple of days.

Shivakumar had on Monday said the Cabinet expansion would be completed by the end of the week, sounding confident about accomplishing the task pending for the past seven weeks.

AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, general secretaries KC Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala, Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president BK Hariprasad will attend the meeting and give their inputs.


The CM has tentatively planned the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday, but the schedule will depend on Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot's availability. The Governor, who has travelled to Bhopal to celebrate Guru Poornima, is said to have agreed to return to Bengaluru if the event is fixed early.

Siddaramaiah, who returned to Mysuru today to participate in the events organized in memory of his late son, Rakesh Siddaramaiah, will return to Delhi in the evening to participate in the crucial meeting.

The expansion was originally slated for last week, but the Congress leadership deferred the exercise as Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders remained occupied with student protests in Delhi.

Sources said Shivakumar, Siddaramaiah and Hariprasad have submitted separate lists of prospective ministers. While Shivakumar is said to have given a long list of 30 names for the leadership to choose from, the former CM is firm on half a dozen of his close followers. Rahul Gandhi also has his own set of names in mind based on inputs he received from general secrtaries and is learnt to have favoured greater representation for younger legislators and women, raising the possibility of a few surprise inclusions.

The delay has prompted the government to postpone the monsoon session of the legislature by a week from the earlier schedule of August 6.

Shivakumar had hoped to complete the expansion soon after taking office on June 3, when he was sworn in along with 13 ministers. The prolonged delay has intensified lobbying by senior MLAs and former ministers, with the 2028 Assembly election less than two years away.

Around 50 Congress legislators are competing for nearly 20 vacant Cabinet berths. The prospect of inducting more first-time ministers has fuelled anxiety among senior aspirants.

Shivakumar has said he is not in favour of leaving Cabinet vacancies, amid speculation that the party could keep two berths vacant to manage future political contingencies.

The Congress leadership is also learnt to be weighing the possibility of creating one or two additional deputy chief minister posts to strengthen its social and regional balance ahead of the 2028 Assembly polls.