It has been nearly one and a half years since YSR Telangana party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s sister Y S Sharmila has launched her party.
She has been undertaking padayatra for the last one year, of course with occasional breaks.
All these days, she has been making critical comments against the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Though she has held quite a few agitational programmes, the TRS government has never taken her seriously and the TRS leaders never reacted strongly to her comments.
But as her padayatra is almost nearing completion, KCR and his party leaders, for some strange reasons, seem to have taken very serious view of Sharmila’s padayatra and her comments.
Though there is nothing so harsh in her criticism but the TRS leaders reacted wildly at her comments.
The attack by the TRS workers on her convoy and the burning of her caravan was a clear indication to the growing unrest and intolerance in the TRS leadership.
And on Tuesday, when she tried to go to Pragati Bhavan in her damaged car along with partially-burnt caravan to register her protest, she was taken into custody.
When Sharmila refused to budge and get down from her car, the police brought a crane and towed her car away even as she was still inside the car.
She was shifted to Sanjeeva Reddy Nagar police station, where she was detained till evening before being formally arrested and sent to judicial remand.
So, what is the reason for such a serious reaction from KCR towards Sharmila’s comments and her padayatra?
One reason could be he wanted to divert the attention of the people from BJP state president Bandi Sanjay’s padayatra which resumed on Tuesday.
Second reason could be KCR might have felt that Sharmila’s padayatra has fuelled the already existing anti-establishment feeling in the state and so, she has to be curtailed now itself.
If Sharmila continues to step up her campaign against the government, it will only help the BJP or to some extent the Congress; and cause a big dent in the TRS vote bank. That could be the reason for KCR deciding act tough against the YSRTP leader.
