The Congress high command is understood to have chosen Mahbubabad Lok Sabha MP Porika Balaram Naik for induction into the Union Ministry.
Sources said, Naik received a phone call from the cabinet secretary to be in Delhi ahead of the reshuffle which is likely to take place Sunday.
The party leadership has also sounded Rajya Sabha MP K Chiranjeevi and Kurnool Lok Sabha MP Kotla Suryaprakash Reddy.
While those who were invited to Delhi celebrated, other aspirants were despondent. These included Malkajgiri MP Sarve Satyanarayana -- who has rushed to Delhi to find out what went wrong -- Eluru MP Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, Rajya Sabha MP and former Khammam MP Renuka Chowdary.
The telephone call put Naik, now in Delhi, on cloud nine. According to sources, the high command chose him to bolster the number of ministers from Telangana to two, oil minister S Jaipal Reddy being the lone minister from that region now.
Another factor that is said to have weighed in favour of Naik was his Scheduled Tribe status. There is already a tribal leader from Andhra, V Kishore Chandra Deo (Araku), in the cabinet now.
Another from Telangana would help the party advertise its friendly credentials. Suryaprakash Reddy, a low profile MP, is another surprise choice. As soon as he got the call from Delhi, his supporters burst crackers in Kurnool.
The party is said to harbour the hope that induction of another Reddy into the ministry will arrest the drift of the community to the YSR Congress in Rayalaseema.
Also, the appointment will end the lack of representation for Rayalaseema in the cabinet since Rajampet MP A Sai Pratap was dropped in July last year. As regards the likely induction of Chiranjeevi, it is more in the nature of keeping a promise made to him when he merged his Praja Rajyam Party in the Congress.