Sonia Gandhi's nod sought for board appointments

Congressmen awaiting posts have pinned their hopes on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC president G Parameshwara  who are leaving for New Delhi, on Thursday, to get the high command’s approval for making nominations to the State-run boards and corporations.

They are scheduled to meet AICC president Sonia Gandhi, her deputy Rahul Gandhi, party general secretary in charge of Karnataka, Digvijay Singh, on Friday. In the past, Singh had said that the high command had already given the green signal for the chief minister to go ahead with the appointments. As there are differences between Siddaramaiah and Parameshwara regarding the selections, there has been a delay, it is said.

Previously, too, the two leaders had visited New Delhi for the same purpose but no appointments were made. It is also expected that Siddaramaiah may go in for a Cabinet expansion, if not reshuffle, before the commencement of the Legislature session in Belgaum.

But the chief minister has not yet expressed his views. If Parameshwara decides to join the Cabinet, then the expansion would have to happen. 

 In the first phase, nominations to as many as 70 boards and corporations, 25 urban development and planning authorities could be finalised in the national capital. Once the list is ratified by the party high command, it would be released in a day or two. Priority has been accorded to district Congress presidents, KPCC office-bearers and those who narrowly missed tickets to contest the 2013 Assembly election.

Some of the names doing the rounds are V S Aradhya, Vasanthi Shivanna, T V Maruthi, M A Hussain, Gurappa Naidu, Jayanthi Bhagavan, Chand Pasha, Mysore Dase Gowda, Nagaraj Yadav, Malavalli Shivanna, Chandrashekar Raju, Manohar of the Youth Congress wing.