Ever since she took over as Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president, Y S Sharmila has been aggressively attacking her brother, YSR Congress party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
In the normal scenario, Sharmila’s attack on her own brother would cause a considerable damage to the ruling YSR Congress party and it is expected that she would indirectly benefit the Telugu Desam Party-Jana Sena Party combine.
Even Jagan has been making an indirect reference to the damage likely to be caused to his party by Sharmila.
He has been alleging at his Siddham meetings that Naidu has been trying to have a direct alliance with one national party and indirect pact with another national party (read: Congress, led by Sharmila).
However, analysts say Sharmila’s strategies are likely to help, in fact, the YSRCP indirectly, rather than the TDP-Jana Sena Party combine. This is basically because the TDP and Jana Sena Party are likely to enter into an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Till the other day, the Left parties are hoping for an understanding with the TDP as part of countering the YSRCP. Though they were not expecting any seat sharing agreement with the TDP, they have been supporting the agitations taken up by TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and his son Nara Lokesh.
Even at the recent book releasing function, the CPI and CPI (M) leaders shared dais with the TDP and of course, Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan, with whom they had an alliance in 2019.
But now that the BJP is most likely to join the TDP-Jana Sena alliance and Naidu is likely return to the NDA fold, the Left parties have decided to desert the TDP and join hand with the Congress.
Sources said Sharmila already had a couple of rounds of discussions with the CPI leaders and is likely to hold similar talks with the CPI (M), besides other fringe parties like Jai Bharat Party of former CBI joint director V V Lakshminarayana and others.
If that happens, it is going to upset the calculations of the TDP and Jana Sena to prevent split of the anti-incumbency vote. The CPI has considerable vote bank in parts of Rayalaseema and central Andhra, while the CPI (M) is strong in north Andhra.
“If they join hands with the Congress and contest the elections, they will split the anti-establishment votes which would have gone in favour of the TDP. And that split will eventually help the YSRCP,” an analyst said.
