YS Sharmila made AP Congress chief after Rudra Raju resigns from post

Amaravati: Days after joining the Congress party, YS Sharmila has been appointed the president of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC). A day ago, G Rudra Raju tendered his resignation as its president to the party high command in Delhi.

Will this political move be a game changer for Andhra Pradesh politics, a battle between the siblings?

Appreciating the contributions of Rudra Raju in his role so far as PCC president, the party appointed Gidugu Rudra Raju as a special invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC).

According to sources, Rudra Raju sensed a hint from the All India Congress Committee (AICC) that it is inclined to appoint Sharmila as Andhra Pradesh PCC president and pit her against her older brother, YSRCP chief and Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Sharmila has already expressed her willingness, saying she is ready to work anywhere that the Congress party fields her, whether it is in Andaman and Nicobar Islands or anywhere else.

Recently, Sharmila merged her YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) with Congress in the presence of Rahul Gandhi in Delhi and emerged as a newly-minted frontline Congress leader of Andhra Pradesh.

Political beginnings

Sharmila was first thrust into the spotlight when she joined her brother YS Jagan on the ‘Odarpu Yatra’. The yatra was to console the families of her father’s supporters who had died of shock or committed suicide after former CM YS Rajasekhar Reddy’s sudden demise. The then Congress leadership was unhappy with this yatra, which they saw as an attempt by Jagan to garner support for the CM post.

In 2011, Jagan quit Congress and formed YSRCP and Sharmila had to take charge of the party’s campaigning from 2012 to 2013 when Jagan was arrested by the CBI on charges of amassing illegal assets. After Jagan’s release, Sharmila continued to campaign for the YSRCP as the second most prominent leader of the party. It translated into a landslide victory in the 2019 elections.

Despite the election victory, the family relations reportedly were strained. There were reports of a fallout on the issue of assets and Sharmila shifted her base to Telangana.

Move to Telangana

In 2021, Sharmila launched the YSR Telangana Party with a promise to bring back her father’s legacy. A year later, Vijayamma, Sharmila’s mother resigned from her son Jagan’s YSRCP and joined her daughter’s new party. Sharmila has been touring Telangana on a padayatra, walking over 3,500 km to meet voters, even engaging in verbal fights with state leaders.

Sources said Sharmila’s political aspirations were scuttled by her brother Jagan and she could not find space in the new scheme of things. For that reason, she came to Telangana. But the leaders of Telangana saw her as more of an AP face than that of the region.

For this reason, her entry into the Congress party was reserved till the Telangana election results.