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Sharmila to kick off Andhra tour today
According to a schedule announced by the APCC on Monday, Sharmila would begin her tour from Itchapuram in Srikakulam district on the borders of Odisha on Tuesday
Hours after taking charge as the new president of Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee on Sunday, Y S Sharmila, sister of YSR Congress party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, announced a whirlwind tour of the entire state to reach out to the people and also to strengthen the party network.
According to a schedule announced by the APCC on Monday, Sharmila would begin her tour from Itchapuram in Srikakulam district on the borders of Odisha on Tuesday and end it at Idupulapaya in Kadapa district on January 31.
She would tour two to three districts every day and cover the entire 25 districts during these nine days. On Tuesday, she would tour Srikakulam, Partvathipuram Manyam and Vizianagaram districts.
On January 24, she will visit Visakhapatnam, Alluri Sitaramaraju, Anakapalli districts followed by Kakinada, Dr. BR Ambedkar Konaseema and West Godavari Districts on January 25.
Sharmila will tour East Godavari, Eluru, NTR districts on Jan 26, followed by Krishna, Guntur and Palnadu districts on Jan 27 and Bapatla, Prakasam, Potti Sriramulu Nellore districts on 28.
She will visit Tirupati, Chittoor, Annamaya districts on 29 followed by Sri Sathya Sai, Ananthapuram, Kurnool districts on Jan 30 while on 31, she will tour Nandyala and Kadapa districts.
Apart from interacting with the people, Sharmila will review the party situation in each district, activate the party cadre and also attract important Congress leaders who had been staying away from the party for the last 10 years, back into the party, a senior PCC leader familiar with the development said.
“Many senior leaders who were earlier associated with the Congress during the regime of Sharmila’s father and former chief minister late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy are evincing interest in returning to the party. Sharmila is likely to interact with them during her tours,” the leader quoted above said.
On Sunday, Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, who had resigned from the YSR Congress party in December, joined the Congress. Another YSRCP MLA from Rayadurgam in Anantapur district Kapu Ramachandra Reddy, who had met former APCC president N Raghuveera Reddy, is also expected to join the Congress, the party leader said.
Speaking to reporters after taking charge as the PCC president, Sharmila declared that the Congress would field candidates in all the 175 assembly constituencies and 25 Lok Sabha constituencies in the upcoming elections.
“AICC in-charge of Andhra Pradesh affairs Manickam Tagore will start accepting applications from ticket aspirants from January 24,” she said.
YSRCP general secretary and advisor to the state government (public affairs) Sajjala Rama Krishna Reddy said it was Jagan, not Sharmila, who had inherited the true legacy of YSR and had been implementing the welfare agenda initiated by his father.
“It is unfortunate that the tone and tenor of Sharmila’s speech has changed after taking over as the PCC president. In criticising her brother Jagan, she is only repeating what the TDP has been alleging all these days,” Reddy said.
Another senior YSRCP leader Y V Subba Reddy, who happens to be uncle of Sharmila, said she had no locus standi in criticising the Jagan government, as she had just landed in Andhra Pradesh after winding up her party in Telangana.
“Let her go round the state first and see what has been done during the Jagan regime. It is surprising that she has chosen the Congress as the platform, as it was the same party which had divided the combined Andhra Pradesh, included her father’s name in the charge-sheet against Jagan (in the alleged disproportionate assets case being probed by the CBI) and sent her brother to jail,” Subba Reddy said.
