Two days after Telangana chief minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao rechristened his regional outfit into a national party signalling his ambitions for 2024 elections, Y.S.Sharmila Reddy, founder of YSR Telangana Party, pitched herself as the main competitor to the ruling party in the state. The 48-year-old daughter of YSR Reddy, former CM of undivided Andhra Pradesh, and younger sister of Y.S.Jagan Mohan Reddy, current Andhra Pradesh CM, said her party will contest on all the seats in the state in the next assembly elections due in 2023.
The entry of Shamila, who claims to inherit the legacy of her father in the state, is likely to make the elections in Telangana multi-cornered. She said her party was separate from her brother’s party, YSR Congress, and would confine herself to Telangana, the state where she was “born, educated, married, and bore two children.”
In her maiden press conference in Delhi, Sharmila attacked the KCR government calling it corrupt and made allegations about the Rs 1.2 lakh crore Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project. She also submitted a complaint to the CBI demanding an inquiry. “We will go to court if no action is taken by the CBI or the central government,” Sharmila said.
She alleged that the money invested in the project was siphoned off. She said, against the initial target of irrigating over 18 lakh acres in the state, only one lakh was being catered to. “Of the Rs 1.20 lakh crore, over Rs one lakh came from central financial institutions. It is no longer a state project. As central financial institutions are involved it makes a fit case for cognizance by the CBI. Even Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Gajendra Shekhawat had spoken against the project,” she charged.
She said that her party has been fighting against Kaleshwaram irregularities, where a single contractor has been found to be favoured without creating a level-playing field for the others. “Why was one contractor handpicked? Why were motor tenders overpriced at every stage, a scam worth thousands of crores.” Sharmila alleged that the figures promised were also faked by the TRS, which is a blatant deception meted out to Telangana farmers, who were pinning hopes on the project, to get relief from perennial drought and irrigation.
Her press conference in Delhi was a major foray at the national level to gather attention to her campaign in the state. She has undertaken a padayatra (walkathon) covering five districts and claimed to have covered over 2,500 kilometres “to highlight the problems faced by the people of Telangana.”
She repeatedly invoked her father during the conference and said her aim would be to fulfil her father’s vision for the state. Sharmila distanced herself from her brother’s politics signalling a difference of opinion between the siblings. She had earlier carried out a walkathon in Andhra Pradesh when her brother was in jail.
However, as she has chosen a different geographical arena to launch her political career, the two are not likely to work at cross purposes. “Have no stake in Andhra. I won’t go there.”
Eyebrows were raised when her mother, who was honorary president of Jagan’s party, YSR Congress, decided to join her. “My mother is with me; she supports me, believes in me and would campaign for me.”
Replying to THE WEEK’s question, she said, “We will go solo. We would contest all seats in the state.”
Congress MLAs are sold on to the ruling party in the state, while the BJP is a right-wing party, we oppose it because of its divisive policies, she explained.
She was particularly miffed with the Congress which she said had deserted her father and family. “His name was added in an FIR. No probe was conducted into his death. How can the YSR family ever forget that.”
Sharmila launched her party on July 8, 2021, the day of his father’s birthday. “Misrule of KCR prompted me to launch a new party,” she said.
Telangana elections are going to be keenly watched as BJP is making a spirited effort in the state. The saffron party held its two-day national executive meeting in Hyderabad in July. The party is hopeful that after Karnataka, Telangana could be the second state in the South where it can find a toehold.
As Congress has been the main opposition party, Sharmila’s entry could eat into the votes of the grand old party as she would invoke her father’s legacy, and also hurt KCR. The KCR’s party men have been calling the YSR Telangana Party BJP’s B-team. “I am no one's B-team,” she said.
