BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s cabinet rejig plan of dumping at least 10 to 12 tainted, non-performers has hit a road hump. Consensus eluded at Siddaramaiah’s talks with party supremo Sonia Gandhi on Friday on the ministers who should be dropped. The deliberations will continue on Saturday.

However, the rejig plan is almost certain to get the final approval of Sonia on Saturday. According to sources, Raj Bhavan has already been intimated to make arrangements to hold the swearing-in ceremony later in the evening on Saturday.

Explaining the cause for the delay in getting green signal for the rejig, sources said, Siddaramaiah’s plan to drop Baburao Chinchanasur, Quamarul Islam, Srinivasa Prasad and Ambareesh among others has met with resistance from party floor leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge. Kharge, reportedly conveyed his disagreement to Sonia on Siddaramaiah’s proposal for a big reshuffle dropping upto 12 senior ministers. Kharge is said to have suggested a moderate rejig by easing out five to six ministers and replacing them with talented, youthful members.

Siddaramaiah has been asked to revise the list of ministers with better caste balance equation.

Sonia, who had a separate meeting with Kharge in the morning before meeting Siddaramaiah, took serious note of Kharge’s suggestions. Even senior leaders A K Antony and AICC General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka Digvijay Singh are said to have advised the CM to arrive at a consensus based on Kharge’s suggestions.

As a result, The CM’s list of ministers to be dropped which is said to include --Baburao Chinchanasur, U T Khader, S R Patil, Shivaraj Thangadagi, P T Parameshwara Naik, Abhayachandra Jain, Ambareesh, Shamanuru Shivashankarappa, Kimmane Ratnakar, H Anjaneya and Quamarul Islam-- failed to convince Sonia. It was decided to continue the talks on Saturday morning to break the deadlock.