13 to 14 ministers likely to be inducted in 1st phase tomorrow

Twenty five days after assuming office, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa will expand his ministry on Tuesday with the likely induction of 13-14 ministers in the first phase.

This will be the first ever expansion of Yediyurappas ministry after he assumed office on July 26 and proved his government's majority on the floor of the Assembly on July 29.

Having run the government with a "one-man cabinet" for over 20 days, the Chief Minister on Saturday managed to get the nod from BJP national president Amit Shah to undertake the exercise on August 20.

Governor Vajubhai Vala will administer the oath of office and secrecy to the newly appointed Council of Ministers at the Raj Bhavan at 10:30 AM on Tuesday.

"The cabinet expansion will take place between 10:30 AM and 11:30 AM tomorrow. I have already written a letter to the Governor in this regard (to administer oath).

I have asked the Chief Secretary to make all arrangements," Yediyurappa said earlier on Monday.

Speaking to reporters here, he said a cabinet meeting would be held after the expansion.

However, with no clarity yet on who all are to be inducted into the Ministry, aspirants and the state BJP leadership are anxiously awaiting clear instructions from the party high command in Delhi.

"There is absolutely no information yet from Delhi. We are still waiting....though the media are running a few names, it is mere speculation as there is no word yet from the high command.

It looks like most of us will get to know about it only tomorrow morning when called to take the oath," a senior party functionary and seen as a top contender for Minister post told PTI.

After returning from Delhi on Saturday night, Yediyurappa said he had held talks with Shah and would get clear instructions from the central leadership by Monday evening on who all were to be inducted.

Asked about the number of ministers likely to be inducted, he had said, "13 to 14 people are likely to be inducted into the cabinet in the first phase,there may be plus or minus one or two,we have now recommended 13 to 14 of them."