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YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) chief Y S Sharmila, the younger sister of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, met top All India Congress Committee (AICC) leaders, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, in New Delhi Thursday, fuelling talk about her impending move to merge her outfit with the Congress.
Since May, there has been a buzz that Sharmila would merge the YSRTP with the Congress and that she was hoping to land a role in the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) in the run-up to the state Assembly polls.
However, the Telangana Congress leaders are not keen on Sharmila joining the state party unit as she is seen as a leader from a prominent Andhra Pradesh political family which had been against the creation of a separate state of Telangana.
The father of Jagan and Sharmila, the late Y S Rajashekara Reddy, was a Congress stalwart and a two-time CM of undivided Andhra Pradesh.
Over the last few months Sharmila has been meeting Congress leaders, such as Karnataka Deputy CM D K Shivakumar, to express her willingness to join the Congress. In early June, she expressed her wish to merge the YSRTP and started distancing herself from her leaders and workers.
Over the last few months Sharmila has been meeting Congress leaders, including Karnataka Deputy CM D K Shivakumar, to express her willingness to join the party. She has ruled out returning to Andhra Pradesh where her brother calls the shots. But Telangana Congress leaders are opposed to her entry as she is seen as an Andhra leader from a political family that has been against the formation of Telangana state.
YSRTP chief spokesperson Konda Raghava Reddy said Thursday that they were not aware of her meeting with the AICC leaders. “The party has folded up in Telangana as far as I know. Whether she will join the Congress and come to Telangana is a big question because local Congress leaders do not want to accommodate her,’’ he said.
Sharmila has ruled out returning to Andhra Pradesh where her brother calls the shots. Jagan heads the YSRCP, which he founded after breaking away from the Congress.
Sharmila has maintained that she wants to contest from the Palair Assembly seat in Telangana, which generated heat in the state Congress circles.
The seat’s sitting MLA Kandala Uppender Reddy has been nominated by the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) led by CM K Chandrashekar Rao or KCR. Reddy had originally won the seat on the Congress ticket but defected to the BRS. The BRS has denied ticket to its local leader and ex-MLA Thummala Nageshwar Rao, who seems to be rebelling against the party now. Amid such a situation some TPCC leaders feel that a “strong, local Congress candidate rather than Sharmila would be a suitable candidate from the seat”.
After her meeting with the top Congress leaders, Sharmila told reporters: “Met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Constructive discussions took place. The daughter of Y S Rajasekhar Reddy would relentlessly work towards benefiting Telangana people. I can say one thing, the countdown for KCR has begun.”
Sharmila, 49, founded the YSRTP on July 8, 2021 – the birth anniversary of Y S Rajashekara Reddy – looking to test the political waters in Telangana. With Andhra political landscape packed with a number of political players – including the YSRCP, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Jana Sena Party (JSP), BJP, and the Congress – Sharmila could not find any space for herself there, and shifted to Telangana politics.
On October 20, 2021, she launched her Praja Prasthanam Yatra, a foot march across 33 districts of Telangana. As she criticised KCR and BRS MLAs, she became the target of the BRS workers, who targeted her padayatra on multiple occasions. She also got into trouble with the state police for continuing her padyatra even after they withdrew its permission.
