BOSTON (AP) – House Majority Leader Salvatore DiMasi has lined up the votes to replace House Speaker Thomas Finneran, who is expected to announce he will leave the Legislature for a job in the private sector, a member of Finneran’s leadership team said Sunday.

“It would be fair to say that more likely than not Speaker Finneran is going to accept the job with the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and more likely than not, Sal DiMasi has the votes to become the next speaker,” state Rep. Eugene O’Flaherty told The Associated Press Sunday evening.

DiMasi, a veteran lawmaker from the Boston’s North End neighborhood, has struck a deal with House Ways and Means Chairman John H. Rogers, D-Norwood, heading off a leadership struggle, The Boston Globe and the Boston Herald reported.

Finneran met with DiMasi and Rogers on Friday night to assemble a deal, which would make Rogers majority leader.

Finneran is expected to make an announcement about his future plans early in the week, and become president of the biotech council on Oct. 4.

“It’s been a busy couple of days,” said O’Flaherty, D-Chelsea, who said he did not know when Finneran would make an announcement about his future. “I really think it’s just a personal decision the speaker made. He said that this day was inevitably going to come, and like he has said publicly before, he always wanted to go out on his own terms, and this is that opportunity.”

Calls from The Associated Press to DiMasi’s Boston’s home went unanswered on Sunday, and a message left at Finneran’s home was not returned. A spokeswoman for Finneran refused to comment, as did a spokeswoman for the biotech council.

The flurry of activity came as a federal probe continues into Finneran’s role in drawing up a new redistricting map for House lawmakers.

Finneran’s role in the redistricting process became the subject of a federal probe after the three-judge panel openly questioned the veracity of his testimony. Finneran told the court he was not involved in drawing the controversial map, but the judges said in their ruling that his statement was not credible.

Last spring, Finneran backed the biotech industry when he thwarted Senate efforts to explore ways for the state to help residents access cheaper drugs through a Canadian drug Web site.

Lawmakers said DiMasi, who is more liberal than Finneran, wanted to move quickly to prevent a succession struggle weeks before Election Day.

DiMasi, 59, a lawmaker since 1979 and majority leader the past two years, is a graduate of Boston College and Suffolk University Law School. In this year’s battle over same-sex marriage, he voted against a constitutional amendment proposed by Finneran that would have defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman and stated that the Legislature “may enact” civil unions for gay couples.