Hyderabad: For the first time, Andhra Pradesh politics is seeing a unique power battle among kin of ex-CMs in the 2024 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
Chief Minister and YSRCP president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, YSRTP president now merged with AP Congress, Y S Sharmila–son and daughter of ex AP Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy late Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh and Daggubati Purandeshwari, daughter of ex AP Chief Minister late N T Rama Rao are eyeing CM’s gaddi.
Nara Lokesh son of ex Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Telugu Desam supremo, is heir apparent to Naidu and calling the shots in Telugu Desam though Chandrababu Naidu, son in law of N T Rama Rao, is still in the reckoning for CM’s post.
In fact, the fight for coveted CM’s post is among the family members of N T Rama Rao and Y S Rajasekhar Reddy but spread across different political parties.
Jagan, Naidu eye second term
While Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and N Chandrababu Naidu are aiming for the second term as CM, Y S Sharmila and D Purandeshwari are trying their luck for the first time.
Andhra politics took a new turn in the election year when Y S Sharmila merged her party with Congress on January 4, in the presence of AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi.
Sharmila takes on brother Jagan
Sharmila, who was initially reluctant to take on brother and focussed on Telangana, will now take on brother and Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in the ensuing Andhra Pradesh elections for Assembly and Lok Sabha.
Kin fighting for CM posts
Andhra Pradesh will see a rare and unusual fight between brother (Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy) and sister (Y S Sharmila) and brother-in-law (Chandrababu Naidu) and sister-in-law (Purandeshwari).
Purandeswari’s sister Bhuvaneshwari is married to Chandrababu Naidu.
Sixty-five-year-old Daggubati Purandeswari, served as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Resource Development in 2009 and in Ministry of Commerce and Industry in 2012.
She was Congress MP from Visakhapatnam and earlier from Bapatla. She joined BJP on March 7, 2014 as a protest against Congress bifurcating the AP. In 2014, she fought the Lok Sabha election on a BJP ticket from Rajampet and lost.
Jagan, Naidu eye 2nd term as CM
Telugu Desam supremo Chandrababu Naidu was the first Chief Minister after bifurcation of the State in 2014.
Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, who launched his own political party YSRCP after Congress denied CM’s post following YSR’s death in 2009, became CM in 2019. Both are eyeing for a second term.
Sharmila supported her brother CM to the hilt initially, undertook padayatra and when she fell out due to differences in the family and power struggle, started her own party which bombed at the political box office.
While she fell out with her brother Jagan Mohan Reddy but got the backing of mother Vijayamma.
Sharmila–Congress trump card
Congress is using Sharmila as trump card to take on Jagan Mohan Reddy, settle old scores and get a foothold in Andhra Pradesh politics after Congress was rejected by people for bifurcating the State against their wishes and also failing to fulfill some of the bifurcation promises especially the special category status for the State.
Jagan decries attempts to divide families
Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy decried Congress using Sharmila.
He said at a public meeting in Kakinada recently, “In the coming days, ahead of the state’s Assembly elections, there will be an increase in party alliances which will break apart families and even bring about atrocities, false promises and pave way for deceit.”
Jagan also took a swipe at Telugu Desam Party (TDP), actor Pawan Kalyan led Jana Sena (JS) alliance. He hinted at Congress using Sharmila against him.
TDP MLC from Pulivendla, M Ravindranath Reddy, better known as BTech Ravi, who was arrested in November 2022 in a case, met Y S Sharmila’s husband Anil Kumar. AP is likely to see more new political alliances.
There are rumours of serious intra-family disputes over properties in the YSR family and all attempts to sort out by Y S Vijayamma failed.
The brutal murder of Y S Vivekananda Reddy, brother of late Rajasekhar Reddy, in which Jagan’s cousin and Kadapa MP Avinash Reddy is one of the accused, has added fuel to fire in the family.
Sharmila supported her cousin and Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter Suneetha in this episode, much to the chagrin of Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Though leaders in various political parties don’t see any immediate political gain in seats for Sharmila through Congress and still assert that the fight will be between Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy led YSR Congress and N Chandrababu Naidu led Telugu Desam Party (TDP) backed by Jana Sena Chief and actor Pawan Kalyan, she may be the spoil sport.
Sharmila sent a Christmas gift to Nara Lokesh, son of Chandrababu Naidu, on behalf of the YSR family and also invited Naidu for her son’s marriage. She seems to keep doors open for any future alliance with any party.
Jagan Mohan Reddy, facing anti-incumbency in some sections, has changed several sitting legislators for polls and indulging in a major overhaul of the party for a second win.
Chandrababu Naidu who is trying hard for a comeback supported by sympathy over his arrest and jail, seems to be in an elated mood over the feud and developments in YSR family.
Congress, fresh from big wins in Karnataka and Telangana State, hopes to regain the lost ground in AP politics through Sharmila.
All eyes are on Andhra Pradesh politics.
