India, July 17 -- The Congress leadership pushed back a decision on expanding Karnataka's council of ministers until next week after party president Mallikarjun Kharge was unable to attend a key meeting in New Delhi, delaying what leaders expected would be the final round of consultations, leaders in the know said on Thursday.

Chief minister D K Shivakumar, former chief minister Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Congress president B K Hariprasad met Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday as part of the party's consultations on filling vacant ministerial positions. The discussions, however, stopped short of a conclusion.

"The meeting decided to hold one more round of discussions next week to decide on the expansion," Hariprasad told repo...