New Delhi, Nov. 7: Sonia Gandhi allowed Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to expand his cabinet with his own picks today but set up a watchdog over him that includes some of his main opponents.

The balancing act, in which both Hooda and the critics who wanted him out have been cut to size, is being seen as a step towards checking the faction fight in the bitterly divided state unit.

Sonia allowed Hooda to have his way in ministry making to ensure smooth functioning for the government. But she set up a co-ordination committee that includes Hooda opponents Chaudhary Birendra Singh and Kumari Selja, who can be expected to keep the high command posted on the style of governance in the state.

Although such committees have little power, its importance lies in the symbolism. Sonia, who had refused to yield to dissident pressure to change the chief minister, clearly does not want Hooda’s one-man show to continue in his second term.

Birendra, who lost the election this time, is a known Hooda-baiter and a long-time aspirant for the chief minister’s post. Union minister Selja had appeared the front runner for the chair this time before Sonia chose to stick to Hooda. Both had been at the forefront of the oust-Hooda campaign.

Sonia has not weakened Hooda’s hands in the administrative sphere, though. The government is packed with the chief minister’s loyalists and the Independents who had offered him support.

One of the seven Independents has been made cabinet minister, three sworn in as ministers of state, and the remaining three appointed parliamentary secretaries. But here, too, some of Hooda’s demands have not been met.

Sources said the chief minister wanted to induct Venod Sharma, a tycoon close to him, into the cabinet but Sonia had stepped in to prevent this. Sharma had earlier had to quit the ministry after his son Manu Sharma got indicted in the Jessica Lal murder case.

Sonia also refused to indulge Kiran Chaudhary, who tried to pressure the party into making her a cabinet minister instead of a minister of state. Kiran, veteran Bansi Lal’s daughter-in-law and a Hooda opponent, has been left out of the ministry.

The high command had received complaints that Kiran and her daughter Shruti Chaudhari, an MP, had sabotaged the chances of several party candidates in the election.