Now that Sharmila has been appointed as the president of Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), an interesting discussion is going on in the political circles on who she would target in the coming days – her own brother Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy of YSR Congress party or Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu.
Sharmila is expected to take charge as the APCC chief only after January 20, when she would be free from performing her son Y S Raja Reddy’s engagement ceremony in Hyderabad.
According to the party sources, the high command has given a specific mandate to Sharmila – to rebuild the party in Andhra Pradesh right from the scratch and see that it would emerge as a force to reckon with at least by 2029.
The immediate task before Sharmila is to see that the party puts up an impressive show in the coming assembly elections. Though the party cannot win even a single seat, it should improve its vote share from around 1 percent to at least four to five percent.
For that, she needs strong leaders who can support her, as she alone cannot take up the fight.
The high command asked her to focus on attracting on some good and potential leaders from both the YSR Congress party and the TDP, who won’t be getting the tickets in their respective parties.
Against this backdrop, it will be interesting to see whom Sharmila would target.
For now, she has been getting some positive response from disgruntled YSRCP leaders. In the coming days, there is a possibility of attracting some TDP leaders as well.
The Congress high command also reportedly told her to attack both the YSRCP as well as the TDP during the electioneering.
“But one wonders whether she would directly attack her brother Jagan Mohan Reddy during the campaign or adopt a diplomatic approach towards him,” an analyst said.
In case of Naidu, Sharmila can take the liberty of attacking him, but since the TDP is in the opposition, if she adopts such a stand, it would only be counter-productive to her, as it would create an impression that she is hand in glove with Jagan and has been made the PCC chief only to split the anti-incumbency vote.
It would be interesting to see how Sharmila would design her campaign strategy in the coming days.
