The exercise undertaken by YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to revamp his entire council of ministers is learnt to have reached final stages.
According to highly placed sources, Jagan, who wants to remove all the sitting ministers and replace them with new faces, reportedly finalised a few names and is working on the names of others who could be inducted into the cabinet.
One of the names that is believed to be confirmed for the cabinet berth is Grandhi Srinivas, who defeated Jana Sena Party chief and popular Tollywood hero Pawan Kalyan from Bhimavaram assembly constituency in 2019 elections.
In fact, Grandhi Srinivas is quite senior in politics, having represented Bhimavaram assembly constituency between 2004 and 2009 on behalf of the Congress party.
He later joined Praja Rajyam Party launched by megastar Chiranjeevi and was closely associated with Pawan Kalyan then.
However, after Chiranjeevi merged his Praja Rajyam Party with the Congress, Grandhi Srinivas shifted loyalties to YSR Congress party, but lost the 2014 elections.
In 2019, he contested against Pawan Kalyan from the same constituency and won with a comfortable margin, thereby getting the giant killer tag.
By inducting Srinivas into the cabinet, Jagan wants to send a strong message to Jana Sena chief, who has been making wild allegations against the state government and is also trying to consolidate the Kapu vote bank.
The other name which is doing rounds as being confirmed with cabinet berth is C Ramachandraiah. A senior leader from Kadapa district and presently an MLC, Ramachandraiah is being accommodated once again under Kapu quota.
Watch out for some more names to figure in the cabinet list!