With focus having shifted on ensuing Baijnath Assembly election in the politically hot Kangra district, the Chief Minister plans to concentrate on the elections rather than undertaking the proposed expansion. At the most, he will accommodate two to three MLAs or some potential BJP leaders as chairmen and vice-chairmen of some boards and corporations.

Sources close to the Chief Minister say Dhumal had not yet consulted the high command on the necessity of cabinet expansion - apparently to give representation to some senior leaders or areas which did not have any representation in the government.

Dhumal, who undertook his first expansion in April 1998 had promised some of the MLAs, who could not be included despite their seniority and eligibility, to accommodate them in the proposed July expansion, which did not materialise or conveniently put off. Some of the MLAs hoped that ``Navaratras'' would be the ideal occasion to get the cabinet berths. These too have passed off and there is no possibility of Diwali gift this month.

Party sources said some of the aspirant MLAs, feeling exhausted in prolonged wait for their impending inductions, have started doubting whether Dhumal really proposes to expand the ministry or would just hang on for sometime to keep the flock together.

A few aspirants are staunch Shanta Kumar supporters. The coalition partner of the BJP, the HVC has also not yet pressured Dhumal for expansion and had been mainly pressing for allotment of Baijnath Assembly seat to it - for which chances are remote. Once process for election starts, the HVC might mount an increased pressure on Dhumal to agree to its demand for giving a cabinet birth to newly elected HVC MLA from Lahual-Spiti, if not the Baijnath Assembly seat.

Currently Dhumal had been holding nearly half a dozen additional portfolios with him besides conventional ones like Home, Finance and General Administration - which all the Chief ministers normally keep with them. He needs to shed portfolios of Tourism, Power and Multi-purpose projects, Technical Education, Revenue, Law, Housing, Ayurveda, Town and Country Planning and Public Relations. Besides Public Works Minister Mohinder Singh also holds two other major departments like Excise and Taxation, Rural Development and Panchayats. Dhumal would likely to reshuffle some of the portfolios of the ministers, whose performance was not up to the mark.