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Sharmila may go it alone in Telangana elections
YSR Telangana Party chief Y S Sharmila has dropped plans to merge her party with the Congress and will contest the November 30 elections to the state assembly alone, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
YSR Telangana Party chief Y S Sharmila has dropped plans to merge her party with the Congress and will contest the November 30 elections to the state assembly alone, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Sharmila, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s sister, failed to get a positive response from the Congress high command on her proposal to play a role in the party in Telangana, apparently under pressure from Congress leaders, particularly state chief A Revanth Reddy, they said, requesting anonymity.
“Now that the Election Commission has announced the schedule for assembly elections, Sharmila has decided to field party candidates for all 119 seats in the state. She will make a statement to this effect in a day or two,” a YSRTP functionary said on the condition of anonymity.
Sharmila had floated YSRTP on July 8, 2021, on the birth anniversary of her father and former chief minister late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy (YSR). The party claims to have a support base in the entire state. It does not have any MLAs in the assembly since it did not exist during the last elections.
There was no immediate reaction available from the Congress.
Earlier, the YSRTP president set a deadline of September 30 for the Congress high command to respond to her merger proposal. “On the same day, the high command sent an emissary to hold discussions with her. He requested her to wait for a few days, as the high command was busy in the finalisation of party candidates in various poll-bound states,” the 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 was less than the vote share of 1.5% of NOTA. She won’t able to do anything in Andhra,” the functionary said.
Moreover, Sharmila had floated the party in the name of Telangana and if she runs away from the battlefield and moves to Andhra, she would lose credibility. “For good or bad, she has decided to confine herself to Telangana and test the waters,” the party functionary said.
