YSR Telangana Party president YS Sharmila, on Thursday, October 12, announced that her party will contest from all the 119 Assembly constituencies without any alliance or merger with the Congress in the upcoming elections. She also declared her candidature from the Palair constituency and hinted that her mother YS Vijayamma might contest in the elections as well. Sharmila made the announcement while addressing her cadre at the party's office in Hyderabad.
The YSRTP leader had been in talks with the Congress earlier for a merger, but her entry into the Telangana unit was reportedly hindered by some leaders. While some were in favour of her joining the Telangana unit, others were apprehensive that the move would allow the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to attack the Congress for taking in Andhra leaders even after Telangana was bifurcated from Andhra Pradesh.
After Congress formed the government in Karnataka in May this year, Sharmila met DK Shivakumar, the president of the Congress Committee and Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, giving rise to rumours about a possible alliance with the party. Later, on August 31, Sharmila held a key meeting with Sonia Gandhi, the Chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party, about a possible alliance or merger, following which Sharmila told the media that she had a constructive discussion.
However, on Thursday, she ruled out the possibility of the merger and announced that YSRTP would contest polls alone. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Revanth Reddy had earlier stated that she is welcome to join the Congress, but in Andhra Pradesh and not in Telangana.
Sharmila has been keen to contest from Palair in Khammam considering the political landscape. Khammam shares borders with Andhra Pradesh, and the members of the region did not resonate with the Telangana separate statehood agitation. The state was formed in 2014 on the sentiment of mistreatment and discrimination by leaders from Andhra.
The YSRTP party was founded two years ago in 2021 by YS Sharmila, who is the daughter of YS Rajashekhar Reddy, the late Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (joint state), and sister of the current Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. Jagan, who heads the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in AP, has not been on good terms with her since the 2019 AP state and General Elections. Sharmila was reportedly wanting to contest as an MP, but it never materialised.
The siblings reportedly had a fallout afterwards, due to which Sharmila eventually quit AP and floated the YSRTP in Telangana. Sharmila has been critical of the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government in Telangana and recently completed an extensive padayatra that covered a distance of 3800 kilometres.