It appears to be more or less certain that YSR Telangana party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s sister Y S Sharmila is going to join the Congress party.
Sources said she has been in consultation with the party high command and she might leave for New Delhi for talks sometime this week. She has almost decided to merge her party with the Congress.
However, the Congress leadership is keen on Sharmila playing active role in Andhra Pradesh, rather than Telangana, while she is interested only in Telangana.
She openly refuted the reports that there was a proposal to make her AP Congress Committee chief and that she was offered the Congress Rajya Sabha ticket from Karnataka.
She reiterated that she was always committed to the cause of Telangana and would continue to fight for the people of the region.
“My future lies in Telangana and with its people,” she said.
The Congress leadership is said to be apprehensive that Sharmila joining the Telangana Congress would have a negative impact on the party.
Reason is simple: the Congress had to pay a heavy penalty in 2018 assembly elections in Telangana by joining hands with the Telugu Desam Party.
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (then TRS) exploited the Telangana sentiment fully by projecting Naidu as an Andhra leader and came to power again.
If Sharmila joins Telangana Congress, there is every possibility that the BRS will play the same sentiment again, as the people still believe Sharmila as a plant of Andhra leadership.
That is precisely why the Congress leadership wants Sharmila to go to Andhra and rejuvenate the party by invoking YSR sentiment.
It has assured that even if she doesn’t succeed in the attempt, the party will protect her political interests.
It will be interesting to see what decision Sharmila will take.
