Harish Rawat to expand cabinet only after Sonia Gandhi's nod

Dehradun: Cabinet expansion in Uttarakhand is set to get delayed with the Congress high-command yet to give the go-ahead for it. [caption id=“attachment_2883112” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Harish Rawat. PTI[/caption] Replying to a question about expansion, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said he has expressed his readiness to the party high-command for it and will conduct the exercise whenever he gets the permission. “I have told Soniaji that I am ready for a Cabinet expansion and will do it whenever I get her permission,” Rawat said on his return from New Delhi where he met Sonia Gandhi. Pradesh Congress president Kishore Upadhyay had recently said the exercise should not be inordinately deferred in view of the assembly elections due early next year. In fact he had even suggested that the Cabinet can be expanded on 23 July, a day after the conclusion of the two-day session of the state Assembly. Apart from Rawat there are nine Cabinet ministers while two ministerial berths are vacant.