PM meets Sonia to finalise ministry expansion

Ahead of the ministry expansion on Thursday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday held consultations to give finishing touches to the list of ministers.

Approximately 50 ministers, including Farooq Abdullah, Salman Khurshid and Mallikarjun Kharge, are likely to be inducted in the second round of ministry expansion on Thursday.

Congress sources said that fifty per cent of the names had been finalised on Tuesday evening, at the meeting of the Congress core committee, after which the party president held a three-hour-long meeting with the prime minister.

The expansion exercise is expected to involve a dozen cabinet ministers, around seven ministers of state with independent charge and 30 ministers of state.