Sharmila’s party to contest all 119 seats in Telangana

Hyderabad: YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) will contest all 119 assembly seats in Telangana in the next month’s election, announced party chief Y.S. Sharmila on Thursday.

Addressing a meeting of the party’s executive committee, she said she will contest from Paleru constituency. 

She said there was demand from party leaders to contest for another assembly seat. 

She claimed that there is also demand from party cadres to field her husband Anil Kumar and mother Y.S. Vijayamma. 

She said it necessary they would also contest the polls. 

Sharmila asked ticket aspirants to submit the applications. Sharmila, who is sister of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, took the decision to contest all seats after the talks to merge YSRTP with the Congress failed to make any progress. 

She said she tried to avoid split of anti-KCR votes and waited for four months. 

Though Sharmila did not specify the reason for failure of talks, it is learnt that the Congress leadership wanted her to lead the party in Andhra Pradesh. 

Sharmila made it clear to the Congress leadership that she will not go to Andhra Pradesh as she is determined to build her political career in Telangana. 

Sharmila is the daughter of Congress leader and former chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR) Sharmila and her mother with Jagan Mohan Reddy after he quit Congress to float YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in 2011. 

After YSRCP stormed to power in Andhra Pradesh in 2019, differences cropped between them. 

Differing with her brother Jagan Mohan Reddy, who was not in favour of entering Telangana politics, Shamrila floated YSRTP in 2021. 

A bitter critic of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, she had also undertaken padyatra. 

The talk of YSRTP’s merger with the Congress had started in May after Congress victory in Karnataka elections. 

Sharmila, who had met Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on August 31, had reportedly demanded a key position in the party and 15 assembly tickets in return for the merger.

She was reportedly keen to get the position of AICC general secretary. 

Earlier, Sharmila had a couple of meetings with Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, with whom the YSR family has close friendship. 

Sharmila had also held talks with Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal.