New Delhi: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) on May 7 favoured limiting the size of ministries but said it should be based on 10 per cent of the members in the Lower House, which is directly elected and not the entire Parliament or Legislature.

"The proposal made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government is self-serving and does not conform to the spirit of the principle of limiting the size of the Ministry," the CPM Polit Bureau said.

It said a limit of 10 per cent of total members in both Houses of Parliament would mean the Council of Ministers could go up to 79 members. The Vajpayee government has 78, which is the biggest in the history of independent India.

Accusing government of bypassing recommendations made by the Commission it set up for review of the working of the Constitution, which recommended that size of the cabinet be limited to 10 per cent of the popular House, it said by these criteria the Union Ministry cannot exceed 54 members.

It said in states there was no necessity to include the legislative council along with the lower house for setting the size of the ministry as some states will have bigger Cabinets because of the Upper House.

PTI