AP legislative assembly Speaker Tammineni Sitaram is moving heaven and earth to enter into YS Jagan’s cabinet. He has himself broached the issue with YS Jagan and has requested him to give him an opportunity to serve as a minister for one last time. If sources are to be believed, he is said to have told Jagan that he would retire from active politics after the ministerial stint.

Tammineni has a long political career starting from NTR era. He joined the TDP and was an MLA for four times from Amadalavalasa. He also became a minister in Chandrababu’s cabinet. Post-2004, he began party hopping and lady luck smiled on him only in 2019, when he had won on the YSRCP ticket. Though he yearned for a ministerial stint, YS Jagan requested him to be the speaker of the assembly in view of his vast experience.

However Tammineni’s ministerial ambitions did not die down. He wants to be a minister one last time. His argument is that most of the north Andhra ministers are either Turpu Kapu or Koppula Velamas. The Kalinga community, to which Tammineni belongs, has not been made a minister in the last 25 years. So, he is said to be using the Kalinga card to become a minister,

Sources say that Jagan has senior politician from North Andhra Dharmana Prasada Rao in mind for the post of the speaker and he is said to be planning to oblige Tammineni Sitaram. Taminneni too is going to town telling everyone who cares that if NTR gave him a life in politics, Jagan has given him a new lease of life.