Y.S. Sharmila.
| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL
After months of delay, YSR Telangana Party chief Y.S. Sharmila has announced that she has no objection to joining the Congress party.
After wide ranging consultations with the Congress leadership, she might announce the merger of her party in the Congress. Ms. Sharmila on Tuesday held broad-based meeting with senior party leaders at the Lotus Pond headquarters of the YSRTP and later travelled to Idupulapaya in YSR Kadapa district in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh to present the wedding card of her son Raja Reddy at the memorial of Late Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy.
After paying tributes to her father, she announced that the YSRTP has decided to strengthen the Congress party. “Congress alone is the biggest secular party in the country that gives security to everyone. That’s why we have decided to strengthen the party,” she said adding that towards this direction, she would be travelling to New Delhi on Wednesday.
“You will get all the answers shortly,” Ms. Sharmila said pointing out that she had taken a conscious decision to work with the Congress party earlier. “We had backed the Congress party in Telangana Assembly elections. YSRTP had also played a crucial role in dethroning the BRS government,” Ms. Sharmila said.
She claimed that in as many as 31 Assembly segments, the Congress candidates won with a majority of under 10,000 votes. “This is because YSRTP did not contest the elections. If we were in the fray, the results would have been different,” she noted.
Indications suggest that the Congress party while giving her due respect and position would like to utilise her services in the upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh. It would be interesting to see how she takes on her brother and Chief Minister Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy and his YSR Congress Party, which is keen on winning the elections for a second time in a row.
Founded on July 8, 2021, coinciding with the birth anniversary of her father and late Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Ms. Sharmila chose to take the political plunge full time in Telangana. Unfazed by the ‘Andhra tag’, Ms. Sharmila made a bold announcement that she being the (daughter-in-law) of Telangana had every right to pursue politics in the youngest State of the country.
That she meant business was evident when she chose to undertake over 4,000 km walkathon (Maro Praja Prasthanam padayatra) covering all the 119 Assembly constituencies in Telangana before the 2023 year end Assembly polls. She launched the padayatra from Chevella, a sentimental constituency for her late father. It was this constituency, that Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy chose to start his historic padayatra in 2003, then represented by Congress MLA P. Sabitha Indra Reddy, whom he affectionately called ‘Chevella Chellamma’ (Chevella Sister) that turned the wave towards the Congress party’s return to power.
The YSRTP chief’s bid to align with the Congress before the Telangana Assembly elections was thwarted by none other than TPCC chief and present Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy. He had expressed reservations that her entry could prove counter productive and given an ammunition to the Opposition parties, especially the BRS, to target the Congress for aligning with the ‘Andhra party’. Ms. Sharmila announced her decision to contest the TS Assembly elections but took a ‘U’ turn in less than a week saying her party will support the Congress.
On the whole, her close to 30-months of political journey in Telangana heartland did not make the desired impact as her party had to always fend off the ‘outsider’ tag.
