In a major shock to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and YSR Congress Party chief Jagan Mohan Reddy ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, his sister and founder president of the party YS Sharmila is speculated to join Congress by the end of first-week of January, informed sources. The development comes a month after the Congress party gained momentum in the southern state of Telangana by winning the 2023 Assembly polls.
The Congress leadership is likely to give Sharmila an important role in Andhra Pradesh ahead of the state polls this year, alongside the Lok Sabha election, sources said.
Sharmila attracted the headlines in 2022 after she launched an intense faceoff with former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. She even announced a hunger strike against ex-CM KCR for allegedly halting her Praja Prasthanam padayatra in the state.
Sharmila came to the limelight in 2012 when her brother parted ways from the Congress party and founded YSR Congress Party along with 18 MLAs. The political move came against the backdrop of the statehood movement. Following the development, several bypolls took place in the state, but with Reddy in jail, it was YS Sharmilla who led the campaign for the newly formed party along with her mother. The YSCRP won the polls.
However, the reports of a rift between Sharmila and her brother Jagan Reddy erupted in 2021. She was allegedly upset over the absence of YSRCP in the state of Telangana. It was therefore, she announced the formation of the YSR Telangana Party that year and started campaigning against the KCR-led TRS (now BRS).
However, she did not contest the recently concluded Telangana polls and supported the Congress party in order to prevent the split of the votes that could have benefitted the BRS.
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