New Delhi:
YS Sharmila, founder and president of YSR Telangana Party and sister of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and YSR Congress Party leader Jagan Mohan Reddy, will attend the conference this week, sources said. This comes soon after the Congress won the Assembly elections in Telangana, ending Bharat Rashtra Samithi's dominance in the state.
According to sources, the Congress leadership will give Ms Sharmila an important role in Andhra Pradesh ahead of the state elections next year, besides the Lok Sabha elections. The move, it is learned, is aimed at reviving the Congress in Andhra Pradesh. The party hopes that those willing to leave YSRCP can now join the Congress at a time when key opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is struggling to maintain its influence.
Ms Sharmila first hit the news in 2012, when Telangana had not yet been carved out of Andhra Pradesh. Against the backdrop of the strengthening state movement, her brother Jagan Mohan Reddy quit the Congress and founded YSCRP. He was joined by 18 MLAs and a Congressman resigned. This paved the way for several bypolls. While Mr Reddy was in jail after being arrested on corruption charges, his mother YS Vijayamma and sister YS Sharmila led the campaign. The YSCRP swept the polls.
Nine years later, in 2021, Ms Sharmila said she had political differences with her brother. She also emphasized that YSRCP has no presence in Telangana. In July that year, she announced the formation of the YSR Telangana Party and started campaigning against the former K Chandrashekar Rao-led government.
Earlier this year, Ms Sharmila had announced that she would not contest the elections in Telangana. She had then said that Congress was well positioned to win the elections and that she did not want to undermine it.
According to Congress sources, the party's vote share in Andhra has fallen precipitously over the years and now hovers around 1 percent. Ms Sharmila, for her part, has fallen out with her brother and appears to be facing a shortage of financial resources to continue her party activities.
Congress leaders agree that there is hardly any time left to bring about a turnaround in the party's fortunes in Andhra. But the party hopes that giving Ms Sharmila a big role, such as that of state Congress chief, will benefit the party at a time when it is gearing up for an all-out fight against the BJP.