About 2.5 years after founding the YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP), YS Sharmila formally merged her party with Congress on Thursday, January 4. Joining Congress in New Delhi in the presence of party president Mallikarjun Kharge and MP Rahul Gandhi, Sharmila said, “It gives me immense joy that the YSRTP is going to be a part of INC from today onwards. Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy, the legendary leader of the Telugu people, not only served Congress all his life, but also gave his life, serving the Congress party. It would give him great joy that today, his daughter is joining in his footsteps. The Congress party is still the largest secular party of our country, it has always upheld the true culture of India, uniting all sections of the people of India.”
Sharmila is the daughter of former Congress CM of undivided Andhra Pradesh YS Rajasekhara Reddy and sister of Andhra Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy. She also said that it was YSR’s dream that Rahul Gandhi should become the Prime Minister of the country. “It was my father’s dream to see Rahul Gandhi as the PM of the country, and I’m very glad that I’m going to be a part of making that happen,” she said.
“As a Christian, it pained me that such cruelty took place in Manipur. Two thousand churches were vandalised, 60,000 people became homeless, and that kind of cruelty is something that I'm not able to digest even to this day. That’s the day I thought that this is what will happen if a secular party is not in power,” Sharmila said.
Sharmila was said to have been offered a Rajya Sabha seat, or a position in the All India Congress Committee (AICC). However, Congress has yet to announce her role in the party, and whether she will play an active role in the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), which would pit her directly against her brother, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. Sharmila said that she would carry out whatever responsibilities are given to her by the party with “loyalty and diligence.”
Read: Tracing YS Sharmila’s political journey
Sharmila launched the YSRTP on July 8, 2021, on the occasion of her father’s 72nd birth anniversary. She said that the party was focused on welfare and equality. In the months leading up to the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections, she toured the state on a padayatra, launching scathing attacks on the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS)’s governance. She was detained by the police and denied permission for her protests on many occasions.
Weeks before the Telangana elections, Sharmila reportedly attempted a merger with Congress but her attempts failed, purportedly due to resistance from some Telangana Congress leaders. She later announced that her party would contest from all the 119 Assembly constituencies without any alliance or merger with the Congress. Less than a month later, she announced that she was stepping away from the poll race, stating that she did not want to split the anti-BRS vote and affect Congress’s chances of winning.
A day before joining the Congress, Sharmila met her brother Jagan in Amaravati on January 3, to invite him to her son’s engagement and wedding. Alla Rama Krishna Reddy, who recently resigned from the YSRCP and also as an MLA, accompanied Sharmila to Jagan’s residence. He had earlier announced that he would follow Sharmila if she joined Congress. Hours before meeting Sharmila, Jagan said at a public meeting that in the coming days, as the state's Assembly elections approach, there would be a rise in party alliances which would “break apart families” and make false promises.
After YSR’s death in a helicopter crash in 2009, Jagan had a fallout with Congress and started his own party, the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP). When Jagan was jailed in the disproportionate assets case in 2012, Sharmila played a key role in garnering public support for him. She also campaigned for him actively before the 2019 Assembly elections, when YSRCP came to power for the first time with a huge majority. However, since then Sharmila has become distant from her brother.