Ahead of taking over the reins of the Congress party in Andhra Pradesh on January 21 (Sunday), the newly-appointed president Y.S. Sharmila sounds confident and determined for a head-on confrontation with her political opponents. Tasked with putting the battered Congress in Andhra Pradesh back on the rails, she is bracing for a fresh innings of her political career in 2024.
Senior Congress leaders agree that the task is not easy but they feel that the right attitude, mindset and wisdom of the late AP Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s firebrand daughter will make a difference in favour of the party.
“It is a great responsibility and I’ll give my best to the party. I understand the growing need to strengthen the Congress, which is the largest secular party in the country,” she said, in a phone conversation with The Hindu. “Because if a non-secular party is voted to power at the Centre, we may have to witness a repeat of the ‘Manipur-like’ violence,” she warned.
The Congress victory in Karnataka and Telangana has come as a morale-booster for the party leaders and cadres in Andhra Pradesh. The party seniors see Ms. Sharmila’s entry as a catalyst for Congress revival in the State.
For Ms. Sharmila, the short time left for elections is the biggest challenge. Moreover, the Congress party scored nil seats in AP in the last two consecutive polls, owing to public anger over bifurcation of the State into Andhra and Telangana. “In the last elections, the Congress got less than 2% of the vote share. We need to work really hard,” she admitted, citing the TDP-Jana Sena Party alliance and their plan to combine the BJP ultimately. “Though they did not say it, but it is obvious,” she said.
She is aware of the fact that she will be directly pitted against her brother and the incumbent Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, but Ms. Sharmila is clear about her political agenda. “Congress will take a very firm stand against the YSR Congress Party in the State. We will be vocal about the failures of the incumbent government,” she said.
Unperturbed by family feud
Ms. Sharmila is not perturbed about questions likely to be asked about the battle of supremacy between her and her brother Jagan Mohan Reddy as a result of a family feud. “I don’t see it as a hindrance because there is nothing personal about it. We see members of a same family taking to different professions by choice. This is also similar to that,” she averred.
Political legacy
On the issue of her battle for ‘political legacy’ of the late YSR against her brother who stormed to power in Andhra Pradesh by claiming to be his political heir, she is confident that people will recognise her as the daughter of YSR and extend their full support to her. “I don’t have to prove anything, as it is bound to happen by default. People can see that I resemble my father in whatever I do. When I wave my hand, they say I look like YSR, or when I smile, they say I smile like him,” she asserted.
Ms. Sharmila campaigned aggressively in support of her brother Jagan Mohan Reddy during the 2014 and 2019 elections, paving the way for his landslide victory. Thereafter, she parted ways over differences with him and launched her own party- YSR Telangana Party in July, 2021 in the neighbouring Telangana State. But in the recent Telangana Assembly polls, she abstained from participating in the elections acknowledging the electoral potential for the Congress party and declaring that she would help the Congress win. On January 4, 2024, she merged the YSR Telangana Party with the Congress party.
She sees her close bond with Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as a dual advantage. “I am a Telugu first and I am attached to both the states. That is precisely why people of Telangana also welcomed me,” she claimed.
As Ms. Sharmila sets on the task of rebuilding the grand old party, which looks anything but ‘grand’ at this point, party veterans are hopeful that she would steer the Congress clear of all hurdles and put it on the path to rejuvenation.
