In 2012, when her brother Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who is now the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, was in prison on corruption charges, Y.S. Sharmila went on a padayatra in support of him. She said then in what became a popular slogan, “Nenu Jagan vadilina baanam (an arrow released by brother Jagan).” In 2021, when she launched the YSR Telangana Party, many borrowed this slogan and tweaked it to say, “BJP vadilina baanam” as they perceived the move to be as an attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to divide the Congress vote bank. However, after two years of leaving no significant imprint on Telangana politics, Ms. Sharmila seems to be heading towards a new destination, the Congress.
The speculation that Ms. Sharmila plans to merge the YSR Telangana Party with the Congress intensified when she met senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi recently in New Delhi.
Ms. Sharmila carries weight in Telangana as she is the daughter of former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, but she also comes with baggage. The baggage is what perturbs some leaders of the Telangana Congress who believe that her father was the party’s biggest impediment to the formation of Telangana.
However, another section of the Congress does not hold this view. Rajasekhara Reddy had encouraged the formation of a Telangana group when he was chief of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) and leader of the Congress Legislature Party in combined Andhra Pradesh, to put pressure on the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in the Telangana region. Therefore, this section insists that Rajasekhara Reddy was among the first to acknowledge the sentiment for statehood.
Thus, there is both opposition and support for Ms. Sharmila’s entry into the Telangana Congress. TPCC chief A. Revanth Reddy said he would welcome Ms. Sharmila “wholeheartedly as the daughter of YSR.” But, he added, “for her to contest and campaign in Telangana is a political risk.” Mr. Revanth Reddy explained that the people of Telangana were not ready to accept those with roots in Andhra as their leaders. His claim has some basis: BRS cadres staunchly opposed Ms. Sharmila’s padayatra after the launch of her new party and clashed with her cadres in some constituencies too.
The fears of the Telangana Congress are not unsubstantiated. When the party joined hands with Mr. Naidu in 2018, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao alleged that Mr. Naidu was using the “backdoor” to enter Telangana and asked whether the State needed leaders from Andhra. The Congress and the TDP lost the election badly.
However, much water has flowed since then and the regional sentiment is not as strong as it was a few years ago. Also, the concern that Mr. Rao could exploit the alliance once more may be unfounded since Mr. Rao is nurturing national ambitions and is not moored to Telangana as such. His party’s name too does not have ‘Telangana’ in it any more.
Ms. Sharmila’s supporters in the Congress believe that her entry could add some value to the party. They believe that she can attract the sections that moved away from the party earlier, such as the people of the Rayalaseema origin in Telangana and a large chunk of the Christian vote bank that had supported Rajasekhara Reddy in combined Andhra Pradesh.
They believe that her legacy could be of advantage. Many voters continue to admire Rajasekhara Reddy for the welfare schemes he launched, particularly free power to farmers, Aarogyasri (a scheme to ensure healthcare for all) and the fee reimbursement scheme. The huge population of the Rayalaseema region in and around Hyderabad too may be influenced by her.
In the 2014 and 2018 Assembly elections, the Congress shied away from acknowledging Rajasekhara Reddy’s contributions fearing a backlash from the BRS (which was then called the Telangana Rashtra Samiti). But today, it is more aggressive under Mr. Revanth Reddy in attacking Mr. Rao. Only a mix of factors can bring dividends to the party and Ms. Sharmila could be one of them.
The Congress is aware that the Assembly elections will be a litmus test for it. Admitting Ms. Sharmila into the party could be a risk or it could be a big advantage.
Equally, this is a test for Ms. Sharmila, the daughter of Rajasekhara Reddy, whose political fortunes have not been bright so far.
