YS Sharmila’s YSRTP decides to go solo in Telangana polls; blames Congress for breakup

Hyderabad: Ending speculation, the YSR Telangana Party has severed ties with Congress and decided to go solo and contest all 119 constituencies in Telangana.

YSR Telangana Party chief YS Sharmila had met Congress party Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in Delhi a month ago. The meeting had set tounges wagging about the possible merger. She had even pitched Rahul Gandhi for the post of Prime Minister saying it was a shared dream of her late father and former CM of United Andhra Pradesh YS Rajasekhar Reddy.

However, in a cadre meeting held in Hyderabad on Thursday, she clarified that her party would contest all 119 constituencies in Telangana. “To ensure that the anti-incumbency vote isn't divided, we had been in talks with the Congress for almost four months. We put forth our best efforts. Now the blame is not on us for the anti-incumbency vote division,” she said.

Sharmila's statement comes weeks after she issued an ultimatum to the Congress high command to finalize the merger by the end of September, as elections are nearing. Congress and YSRTP leaders thought the deal would almost be finalized, as talks were being conducted directly with top leaders, including Karnataka Dy. CM D. K. Shivakumar. However, her announcement came as a shocker.

What led to the alliance or merger being put on hold?

Sources in Congress told NewsMeter that TPCC Chief Revanth Reddy and other senior leaders were not keen that YS Sharmila join Congress. Reportedly, Revanth Reddy conveyed to the Gandhis that her joining would hamper the party's prospects as Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao-led Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi (BRS) would bring up the AP-Telangana sentiment, which BRS had already done when the Congress had formed an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 2018 election.

“She is not going to influence Telangana. She realized this during her Padayatra and decided to merge the party with the Congress. Additionally, she comes with a YSR legacy who had been vocal against the formation of Telangana,” sources added referring to talks within the inner Congress circle.

In fact, the TS Congress leaders including Revanth Reddy have suggested that YS Sharmila should join but on the condition that she will work only for AP Congress as it will help revive its lost glory after YSR's death and the bifurcation of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh.

But, Sharmila had reportedly refused to work for Congress in Andhra Pradesh. “After the bifurcation of Telangana from Andhra, in the 2014 & 2019 Andhra elections, the Congress secured fewer votes than NOTA. So, it would be like starting from scratch to bring Congress back on track. Also, she is skeptical about facing her brother, YSRCP Chief and AP CM YS Jagan, in a direct fight, even though she has differences. She doesn't want the situation to escalate further. Furthermore, she has committed her entire focus to Telangana for the past three years, pledging that she will fight for the upliftment of the state, so reversing back now would harm her credibility,” sources said.

However, the YSRTP sources have dismissed the view that Telangana sentiment would hamper Congress upon her joining.

“Within Congress, there is a large section of leaders who anticipated YS Sharmila joining. But it is Congress Chief Revanth Reddy and a few others who prevailed in halting her joining. They told Gandhis that Sharmila's joining would trigger AP-Telangana sentiment. But this is far from reality. Chandrababu Naidu, who was then CM of Andhra Pradesh, had suddenly joined hands with Congress a decades-old rival party for Telangana elections as he wanted to show off his strength to the BJP. But he didn't advocate for Telangana development, and this was clearly noticed by the public. Furthermore, his tenure as Andhra CM helped BRS Chief, who was also a former colleague of Naidu, to ignite the Andhra-Telangana sentiment,” sources said.'

“Sharmila has been in Telangana for the past three years. After her Padayatra, she has been gaining popularity among the public. She has met thousands of people with her promise of establishing her father YSR's regime. So, both cannot be equated, as Sharmila has the Telangana identity with her, unlike Naidu. The real truth behind this is that Revanth Reddy and a few other leaders thought YS Sharmila's joining would hamper their prospects, as there is a lot of infighting within Telangana Congress, especially regarding Revanth's promotion to Congress chief and his working style. YS Sharmila joining would work as an anti-Revanth force, which would threaten their leadership.”

Who loses and who wins from YS Sharmila not joining Congress?

Speaking to NewsMeter, former MLC and political analyst Prof. Nageshwar said: “Alliances will help in consolidating the anti-incumbency vote share. As the opposition parties have the advantage of space for the anti-incumbency votes, contesting together will help in not splitting the votes. However, to what extent YS Sharmila going alone would hamper has to be seen, as she has conducted most of her campaigning in Andhra Pradesh and never contested in Telangana nor in Andhra as well. Also, to what extent the YSR legacy would work still remains a question. Also, there are a lot of factors that would come into play; we can't say just because she's not joining an alliance, it would significantly hamper the polarised opposition party Congress. At the time of voting, the candidate and the local political scenario will also come into play.”

To what extent YSR's background could help in Telangana for the Congress, he opined that YSR's background might not play a larger role in the current Telangana political landscape. “The polarisation is mainly between Congress and BRS. The current Congress is also not relying much on YSR's legacy, as many leaders with differences with YSR are still present in Congress, especially regarding YSR's stance on Telangana. Also, if you see, both the BRS and Congress chiefs come from a TDP background,” he said.

The Rise of YSRTP

YS Sharmila, the daughter of the late CM YS Rajasekhar Reddy of United Andhra Pradesh, entered politics immediately after her father's demise in Odarpu Yatra, a campaign where she met hundreds of people who were affected by YSR's accidental death. Although she didn't contest in elections, she campaigned for her brother YS Jagan along with her mother YS Vijayamma until the 2019 elections when her brother came to power.

Reportedly, she parted ways with her brother YS Jagan in 2019. It has been reported that she felt sidelined after the YSR Congress Party came to power. Her work was not recognized by the party. This led to differences, and YS Sharmila opted to join Telangana Politics and started YSR Telangana Party in 2021.

Within a year, her mother YS Vijayamma also joined her daughter's party after resigning from her son's YSRCP in Andhra. This entire family episode has been the talk of the town.

Gradually, YS Sharmila came to the limelight with her direct confrontations and counters against KCR in her 3500 km 'padayatra' in Telangana.

2018 Telangana elections: A case Telangana Congress used against YS Sharmila joining?

Telangana Assembly elections were preponed by the then TRS (Now BRS) chief KCR in 2018, when the Congress joined hands with TDP, CPI, and Telangana Jan Samithi. The reason was that the then Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu joined forces with the Congress. Differences had emerged with the BJP over the implementation of the AP Reorganization Act. So, TDP was of the opinion that if the alliance worked in Telangana, this could put a halt to the BJP's prospects in the southern states.

Named 'The Maha Kutami', the alliance was banking on anti-incumbency. They were also banking on the vote share of 2014. Congress had secured 25%, TDP had 14% (together 39%), whereas TRS had only 34%.

However, the strategy didn't work as TRS Chief KCR and his party launched an aggressive campaign focusing on Telangana sentiment and pointing out various petitions filed by the Andhra Pradesh government led by TDP against Telangana's irrigation projects on Godavari and Krishna rivers.

So, in more than 100 rallies and public meetings, KCR emphasized the idea of a proxy Congress government being controlled by Andhra politicians, which would halt the Telangana development. This strategy worked, as the TRS vote share increased to 46.9% in the 2018 elections, while the Congress vote share saw a small increase to 28.4%, and there was a significant fall in TDP's vote share to 3.4%.