Sharmila may not be contesting the Assembly polls, but the Congress party is expected to offer her a Rajya Sabha seat.
Published Aug 19, 2023 | 8:14 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 19, 2023 | 8:15 PM
YSRTP president YS Sharmila (X)
The suspense over Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Telangana Party (YSRTP) president YS Sharmila’s plans ahead of the state Assembly elections is coming to an end.
Reliable sources close to the family informed South First that the YSRTP president is set to “unconditionally” merge her party with the Congress in the first week of September in the presence of the party’s senior leader Rahul Gandhi, either in Delhi or Telangana.
The merger decision would have come earlier, but Sharmila could not meet Gandhi because of his preoccupations.
The party’s high command has reportedly made it clear that she would not be contesting the Telangana Assembly election. The Congress could instead offer her a Rajya Sabha seat.
Sharmila had been dropping subtle hints to the Congress high command that she was expecting a ticket to contest the Assembly polls in return for merging YSRTP with the more than a century-old party. But the Congress has apparently made Sharmila change her mind with the Rajya Sabha offer.
Since Sharmila’s roots are in Andhra Pradesh, the state Congress leaders, especially TPCC president A Revanth Reddy, were firmly opposed to her contesting in Telangana.
Several Telangana leaders recalled how the Congress party’s prospects of grabbing power in 2018 were dashed by its alliance with TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu.
In 2018, BRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who was struggling to connect with the people with his welfare schemes, heaved a sigh of relief when Naidu entered the scene jointly with the Congress. KCR resurrected the spirit of the Telangana movement and won the election.
When Sharmila was recently spotted at the Hyderabad airport along with Congress MP Komatireddy Venkata Reddy after arriving together from Delhi, speculation was rife that she had sealed the deal with the party’s high command.
Though Sharmila was reticent about her Delhi visit, Venkata Reddy dropped enough hints that she would be merging YSRTP with the Congress.
He had said that there was nothing wrong with Sharmila joining the party though he did not know the outcome of her visit to Delhi.
Her entry into the party would surely strengthen its position, he said, as she would be able to get votes as she is the heir to her father, the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s legacy, which the people of Telangana had not forgotten.
Her brother YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.
Sharmila, who has been seeking to merge her party with the Congress despite opposition from her mother YS Vijayamma, was not inclined initially to move back to Andhra Pradesh — which was what the Congress wanted — as she apparently did not want to take on her brother, Chief Minister Jagan.
Apart from this, the Congress has been dead horse in Andhra Pradesh since the bifurcation of the state in 2014. The possibility of the party coming to life is remote, regardless of how severely she may flog it.
Sharmila was initially insistent about operating in Telangana, describing herself as “Telangana’s daughter” who would continue to fight for the state’s people.
However, the Congress was hesitant about giving her any role in Telangana in the wake of party strategist Sunil Kanugolu telling the leadership that the benefit that would accrue to the party would not be much if she was asked to operate in Telangana.
The party, instead, wanted her to work to revive the Congress in Andhra Pradesh.
But it now appears that an agreement has been reached, though the details would be revealed only once the merger takes place.
