YS Sharmila may join Congress in January, campaign in AP during polls

VIJAYAWADA:

YSR

Telangana Party president YS

Sharmila

is likely to merge her party with the Congress in the first week of January 2024. According to Congress sources, Sharmila may be given a key position in the party central leadership, with an active role in Andhra Pradesh during the state assembly and the Lok Sabha polls scheduled for early 2024.
And if this happens, a member of the YSR family will be directly taking on the YSRCP led by chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

After the death of then chief minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy in 2009, his son Jagan formed his own political party. YSR's wife Vijayamma and daughter Sharmila had then sided with Jagan.
Party sources said the initial merger talks with Congress that were stopped due to the Telangana assembly elections will resume in the third week of December.
Sharmila has agreed to take the post of general secretary in the AICC, sources said. She will also be made in-charge of one state in the north in her capacity as general secretary. Accordingly, Sharmila would

campaign

for the Congress in Andhra Pradesh in the 2024 general elections. She has been asked to hold two election meetings in Andhra Pradesh, one in Visakhapatnam and another in Vijayawada, during the upcoming elections. She would link the Visakhapatnam meeting with the Visakha Steel Plant and the Vijayawada meeting with Amaravati, those close to Sharmila said.

Sharmila would be accompanied by Priyanka Vadra in Visakhapatnam and Rahul Gandhi in Vijayawada. Though the party also requested her to address another meeting in Rayalaseema, Sharmila is yet to take a call on it. She reportedly told Congress that she does not want to disturb her brother Jagan's vote base in Rayalaseema region.
Sources said talks are being held on either sending her to the Lok Sabha from Khammam constituency in Telangana or to the Rajya Sabha from neighbouring Karnataka. Sources told TOI that she is yet to make up her mind on the issue. She is undecided on whether to contest direct elections and become MP or go to Parliament through the Rajya Sabha.