YS Vijayamma to join Rosaiah cabinet.

Late chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddys widow Vijayalakshmi is tipped to join the Rosaiah cabinet when the chief minister undertakes a reshuffle and expansion on April 8, highly placed sources said.

A homemaker, Vijayalakshmi was catapulted into politics after YSR’s death and was unanimously elected to the assembly from Pulivendula constituency which was represented by her husband. The move is seen as a clever ploy by Rosaiah to rally all the YSR loyalists behind him at a time when he is cementing his hold on the CM’s chair.

The sources said the CM will visit New Delhi in the first week of April to get clearance from the Congress high command for the induction of Vijayalakshmi as well as other names he wants to either drop or add to his ministry. As per the muhurat, April 8 is the date when Rosaiah will undertake the expansion, the sources said.

Other names include Council chairman A Chakrapani who could replace N Raghuveera Reddy, another Yadava from Anantapur. It is common knowledge that the CM and Raghuveera do not see eye to eye on many issues, including the cloud seeding project. Also,the names of senior leaders like K Jana Reddy, P Shankar Rao, M Sashidhar Reddy, D Kutuhalamma, J C Diwakar Reddy and speaker N Kiran Kumar Reddy as well as new faces like T G Venkatesh (Kurnool), Gandra Venkataramana Reddy (Bhupalpalli) and Arepalli Mohan (Manakondur) are doing the rounds as hopefuls into the cabinet.