Bangalore : Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said he would not be expanding his ministry for now. He, however, stated that heads and members would be appointed for boards and corporations.

Reports originating from New Delhi on Monday had said that the Congress high command had given permission for Siddaramaiah to take up the much-awaited ministry expansion and he has been asked to fill up two of the four vacant berths.

Party sources said that during the review and co-ordination meetings the high command had with Siddaramaiah and KPCC president G Parameshwara, a green signal was given for inducting senior MLAs D K Shivakumar and R Roshan Baig into the Cabinet. However, the high command changed its stance later. When there is pressure on the chief minister to drop Santosh Lad from the ministry for his alleged role in illegal mining, it would be better not to get into more trouble by taking any wrong decisions at this point, was the party’s decision, it is said.

It is not just Baig and Shivakumar who had been lobbying for Cabinet berths. Dr A B Maalakaraddy, Manohar Tahsildar and Veeranna Mattikatti are also among the aspirants. As the expansion of the ministry has been put on the back burner, the party leaders can now only hope and lobby for the posts of chairpersons of boards/corporations, sources said.

In Chikmagalur, while replying to queries from the media, Siddaramaiah said that the Delhi meetings did not discuss ministry expansion but focussed on the coming Lok Sabha polls.

He said that the high command has given its consent for making appointments to boards/corporations. He said the pending appointments to various academies too would be taken up.