Hyderabad: After weeks of failed negotiations and parleys with senior Congress leaders, including those from the Gandhi family, YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) chief YS Sharmila eventually on October 12 declared that her party will contest from all 119 seats in the upcoming Assembly elections on its own. Sharmila, who was hoping that her entry into the Telangana Congress would propel her into active politics, had her hopes dashed in spite of some senior Telangana Congress leaders wanting to take her in.
So what happened then and where does this leave her? According to YSRTP sources working closely with Sharmila, the biggest roadblock between her and the Telangana Congress unit was state party chief and Malkajgiri Lok Sabha A Revanth Reddy. Others, especially those who don’t get along with Revanth, were in fact looking forward to roping Sharmila in, especially due to her father’s legacy in the state.
It may be recalled that Revanth also did not directly negate Sharmila’s entry, but said that she is welcome to join the Congress, but in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh (AP), which she was forced to leave after her fallout with her brother and AP chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. Sharmila, who was looking to carve her own political path in AP, had campaigned for her the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), headed by Jagan, in the 2019 AP state and Lok Sabha polls.
Sharmila reportedly wanted to contest as an MP candidate, and was later hoping to enter the Rajya Sabha. However, with Jagan unwilling to give her space, she left AP and floated the YSRTP in Telangana. After undertaking a ‘Padayatra’ across the state over the last two years, and with hopes that she could merge the YSRTP with the Congress, Sharmila was aiming for the Palair Assembly seat.
Her father, the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, was chief minister of the erstwhile AP state from 2004 to 2009 until his sudden demise in a helicopter crash. His death allowed Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS, which then Telangana Rashtra Samithi) supremo and Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) to intensify the separate statehood agitation from December 2009 onwards.
The constituency has a sizeable chunk of voters from AP who also reside there, and is Reddy dominated, which would have given her an edge. “Moreover, her father’s legacy as a pro-farmer chief minister in the erstwhile AP state is something the Congress in Telangana uses. While Revanth on the surface said that she is welcome to join the AP unit, his bigger fear was that she would have been the person whom all anti-Revant leaders in the Telangana Congress would come to,” said the YSRTP source.
Parallely, Jagan Mohan Reddy, who was then a Congress MP and wanted to then become AP chief minister also, quit the Congress and floated the YSRCP. While KCR’s efforts paid-off and Telangana was formed with the BRS coming to power, YSRCP became the main opposition party in AP as the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had come to power.
Would Sharmila have unified TPCC leaders against Revanth?
It is no secret that Revanth has his own enemies within the Congress, with his predecessor and Nalgonda Lok Sabha MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy the more obvious one. Both leaders, according to Congress insiders do not get along. “Congress having internal issues with infighting amongst leaders is not new. But Sharmila’s entry into the state party would have probably brought al anti-Revanth faces on one side. As of now they are all divided,” said the YSRTP source.
A senior Congress leader, who also did not want to be named, said the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) would have also used Sharmila’s entry into the Congress to target the party during the polls, which are slated to be held on November 30. “In the last elections when we partnered with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) used it to brand as an Andhra party, or that we are allowing AP leaders to run the state again. So that is also another issue,” he added.
As of now, it is unlikely that anyone else will align itself with the YSRTP. Sharmila had even reached out to Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) chief Prof M Kodandaram, who had led the Telangana statehood agitation with KCR from 2009 to 2014. However, even that went cold turkey. It is to be seen if Sharmila is able to cause enough damage on her own for others to take her seriously in the state going forward. Counting for the Assembly polls will be held on December 3.
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