Sharmila announces YSRTP’s plan to contest from all 119 seats in Telangana elections: Latest News India

YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) president Y S Sharmila, while ending the prolonged stalemate over the merger of her party with the Congress, on Thursday announced that her party would contest in all 119 assembly constituencies in Telangana in the upcoming assembly elections, scheduled to be held on November 30.

Sharmila, who convened a meeting of her party leaders and supporters at her Lotus Pond office in Hyderabad, announced that her party is committed to fulfilling the aspirations of the people of Telangana and bringing back the welfare state envisaged by her father late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, former chief minister of combined Andhra Pradesh.

While quoting the speech of Sharmila at the meeting, a YSRTP spokesperson said in a statement that she would contest from Palair assembly constituency in Khammam district, as decided earlier. “If needed, my mother Y S Vijayamma, too, will contest in the assembly elections to do good for the people of Telangana,” the spokesperson quoted Sharmila as saying.

Sharmila, the sister of Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, said the YSRTP, which started its journey two years ago, stood as the sole party committed to the fight for cause and concern of people of Telangana.

“With tireless padayatra covering 3,800 km, we won the hearts of the people and we were the first and most honest in fighting for every cause and concern of the people of Telangana. Our intense fight against unemployment was a reason why KCR [Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao] released at least a few job notifications,” she claimed.

Explaining the reasons for the proposal to merge her party with the Congress, Sharmila said her noble intention to take the step was to ensure the anti-establishment vote was not divided, as she felt the alleged autocratic rule of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi did not deserve another term.

Without commenting on the failure of the talks with the Congress, the YSRTP president said it was time to move on and fight the most important battle for the state. “We declare with pride that we are ready,” she said.

The party spokesperson said Sharmila had invited applications from interested candidates to contest the elections in all the constituencies in Telangana. “We shall give tough fight to all the contenders,” he said, quoting the party president.

Meanwhile, the Telangana Congress refused to comment on Sharmila’s decision to contest alone in the assembly elections. “We do not want to react to her statement on failure of talks with the Congress. We shall discuss the development within the party, before making any comment,” Pradesh Congress Committee vice-president and former MP Dr Mallu Ravi said.

Sharmila held several rounds of talks with the Congress leaders in the last four months, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on August 31, on her proposal to merge the YSRTP with the Congress.

While she was firm on playing a role in the Telangana Congress, the high command asked her to keep away from Telangana and offered to make her the president of Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), but she refused the offer, a party functionary said.

The YSRTP functionary said Sharmila felt there was no point in going to Andhra Pradesh to fight against her own brother Jagan Mohan Reddy. “Secondly, the Congress is a virtual non-entity in Andhra Pradesh, as it had not won even a single assembly or Lok Sabha seat in the last two terms and its vote share was just 1.29%, which is less than the vote share of 1.5% of NOTA. She won’t be able to do anything in Andhra,” the party functionary said.

Moreover, Sharmila had floated the party in the name of Telangana and if she runs away from the battle field and moves to Andhra, she will lose her credibility. “For good or bad, she has decided to confine herself to Telangana and test the waters,” the party functionary said.