No merger with Congress, YSRTP to contest from all 119 Telangana Assembly seats, says YS Sharmila

Hyderabad: Ruling out a merger with the Congress, YSR Telangana Party founder YS Sharmila on Thursday said her party will contest from all 119 seats of the State Assembly, while she will vie for Palair constituency.

Speaking at a party meeting, Sharmila said she waited for four months for a response from the Congress leadership on her proposal to merge her party or work with the grand old party.

As there was no response from Congress, the YSRTP decided to field candidates in all the constituencies, she noted.

"We wanted to go along with Congress party to ensure that the anti-incumbency vote does not split. If the anti-incumbency vote splits it will ultimately benefit Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. But it (association with Congress) did not happen. Now, blame is not on us (If the anti-incumbency vote splits)," she said.

"YSR Telangana Party will contest from all 119 constituencies," she further said, adding that there is a demand from the party that she should contest from one more constituency.

Sharmila had earlier said her discussions with Congress on "working together or a possible merger", have come to a final stage. She had also met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

She also set a deadline of October 1 to the Congress to spell out its stand on the possible merger or working together.

There is a demand from the party cadre that her husband Anil Kumar and mother Vijayamma should also contest in the upcoming Assembly polls, she added.

Telangana is going to polls on November 30 and the counting will take place on December 3.

Sharmila had vigorously campaigned for her sibling Jagan during the 2019 Assembly polls in AP and later floated her own party, YSRTP in Telangana.

Inputs from PTI