It appears the Congress high command has virtually shut the doors on YSR Telangana Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s sister Y S Sharmila, who desperately wanted to merge her party with the grand old party.
According to sources, the high command has categorically told Sharmila that she cannot be accommodated in Telangana Congress and she has to go to Andhra Pradesh to head the party. If she agrees for the same, she would be given the Rajya Sabha seat from Karnataka.
But Sharmila rejected the offer, as it is the question of her credibility. Since she has floated the party only for Telangana, she cannot give up the right on the state and it would be an insult to her if she deserts the state and goes to Andhra.
Moreover, she is not willing to fight against her own brother in Andhra Pradesh; and her mother Vijayalakshmi is also dead against any such decision. So, she decided to drop the plan to join hands with the Congress.
Now, what does she want to do? She announced earlier that she will field her party candidates in all the 119 assembly constituencies; she, herself, will contest from Palair assembly constituency in Khammam district.
Forget about fielding the candidates in all the seats, Sharmila will have to face a tough contest from veteran like Tummala Nageshwara Rao from the Congress and sitting MLA K Upender Reddy from Bharat Rashtra Samithi in Palair.
Moreover, she hardly gets any limelight in the media if she contests from Palair. So, party leaders suggested to her that she should choose one of the constituencies in northern Telangana as well, against top BRS leaders like KCR or his son K T Rama Rao.
So, Sharmila is now said to be contemplating contesting from Kamareddy, where KCR will be contesting or Siricilla, where KTR is the candidate. Though there are absolutely no chances of Sharmila winning the either seat, it will fetch her the image of a fighter, so that it would help her build her image in the coming days, sources said.
If she does that, it will be an interesting battle to see!
