After months of speculation, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s sister and YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) chief Y S Sharmila joined the Congress on Thursday.
Ahead of the Telangana Assembly elections held in November last year, there were talks about Sharmila merging her outfit with the grand old party. The merger did not materialise, but she stayed away from the elections as she “did not want her candidates to split pro-Congress votes”.
Sharmila, daughter of former Andhra Pradesh CM late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR), has now decided to take the plunge after talks between her and former YSRCP MP Y V Subba Reddy, her uncle, failed. Sources said Jagan had sent Subba Reddy as his emissary to convince Sharmila to join YSRCP as he felt his influence and image across the state would be affected if his sister joins the fray in the state.
#WATCH | YSRTP chief & Andhra Pradesh CM’s sister YS Sharmila joins Congress, in the presence of party president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, in Delhi
pic.twitter.com/SrAr4TIZTC— ANI (@ANI) January 4, 2024
The brother-sister duo parted ways, politically, in July 2021 after Sharmila floated her outfit in Telangana. Both the YSRCP and the YSRTP were formed with the avowed objective to take forward YSR’s legacy and bring back “Rajanna Rajyam” (YSR’s governance).
The YSRTP chief’s entry into Congress is likely to set up the possibility of a brother-sister duel in the upcoming simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in the state, which might have a bearing on future prospects of Jagan — and that of the grand old party, which has been decimated in the state since its bifurcation in 2014.
Sources close to the YSR family had told The Indian Express that Jagan and Sharmila have not seen eye-to-eye on many issues following their father’s death in 2009. After his fallout with the Congress leading to the formation of the YSRCP in 2011, Jagan handled the affairs of the party across Andhra Pradesh while his sister was its national convener.
A year younger than 51-year-old Jagan, Sharmila is married to Brother Anil Kumar, who is known for his evangelical preaching in Andhra Pradesh. Kumar had taken a break from his preaching activities after YSR’s death and resumed it in 2010. He also courted controversy when he met noted filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma during the filming of an anti-TDP movie.
After her stint as the YSRCP’s national convener, where she never contested elections, Sharmila launched the YSRTP in Telangana with her mother Y S Vijayamma by her side. She took on the K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR)-led BRS government on various issues for which she was detained by the Telangana police several times.
However, she failed to capture the voters’ imagination in Telangana, parts of which have a strong connection to her father, like her brother managed to in Andhra Pradesh. She recently also courted controversy after assaulting a policeman on duty. Her plans to merge her party with the Congress ahead of the Telangana polls hit a roadblock after state leaders objected to it there.