Angry BRS (Bharat Rasthra Samithi, formerly TRS – Telangana Rashtra Samithi) workers, attacked a convoy of vehicles belonging to Sharmila Reddy’s YSRTP party (YSR Telangana party), in retaliation for her comments against Narsampet BRS party MLA, P Sudarshan Reddy.
A bus and a few vehicles in her convoy were set on fire by agitated BRS activists, following her reference to the BRS MLA’s alleged corruption. Sharmila reportedly intervened as her supporters clashed with those of the BRS party. She was taken into “preventive” custody on Tuesday, by the Warangal Police and was granted bail earlier on Wednesday (30 November 2022).
Sharmila, who launched the YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) last year, is the proverbial underdog in Telangana politics. She claims her party will emerge a major contender to Chandrashekar Rao’s ruling BRS (formerly, TRS) party in the 2023 Telangana polls. Her brother, Jagan Mohan Reddy is the incumbent Chief Minister of the “twin” Telugu state of Andhra Pradesh and leader of the YSRCP party.
Sources claim, not all is well with the once strong relationship between the brother-sister duo, the children of former chief minister of the larger, undivided Andhra Pradesh state, Y.S Rajashekar Reddy
(a.k.a YSR) who had vehemently opposed the bifurcation of the state into Andhra and Telangana. YSR died in a helicopter crash, in September 2009 while he was still Chief minister, giving rise to several conspiracy theories.
Y.S. Sharmila, who launched the YSRTP party in Telangana last year without the support of her brother, the current A.P chief minister and YSRCP leader Y.S.Jagan Reddy, has said that her brother’s support didn’t matter and that her newly launched party would contest all 119 seats in the 2023 Telangana assembly elections. She is being supported by her mother and her husband Morusupalli Anil Kumar (“Brother” Anil) who is a Christian evangelist/missionary and founder of “Anil World Evangelism”.
The entire family, including Jagan and Sharmila are practicing Christians and may have an edge with the Christian minority.
It’s early yet to predict whether Sharmila’s enthusiasm and optimism will turn into a sizeable vote share but political analysts speculate that she may cut into the share of the BRS party’s Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Minorities and Dalits. If that were to happen, it would be worrisome for the incumbent BRS party in Telangana and an advantage for the state’s BJP, which has witnessed a meteoric rise since the last state elections in 2018. The other parties in the fray, namely Congress and the TDP have lost their political relevance in Telangana since the 2014 bifurcation.
Touted to be a hotly fought contest between the BRS and the BJP, Sharmila’s YSRTP is the proverbial underdog that may end up with a surprising electoral result, forcing the BRS to take its potential appeal to the Minorities (especially Christian), Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes, seriously. The Telangana Muslim vote is likely to remain with the Hyderabad based, Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).
Sharmila claims her “padayatra” (walkathon) to personally connect with the common people of Telangana, will bring back memories of the legacy of her late father and former chief minister (YSR), based on the numerous welfare schemes he had launched in the undivided Andhra state. She was quoted stating “Many ruled me out in the beginning… that YSR is a long-gone era and he is no longer prevalent in Telangana, but I received a lot of warmth and love during the ‘padayatra’. Being YSR’s daughter will just be a launchpad for me; people will actually see my calibre…”. Sharmila who has been on a padayatra in Telangana since last October, claims that people are paying attention and showing interest in her vision, which is similar to her father’s vision of welfarism and upliftment of the lower classes.
It is worth noting that it was Sharmila and her missionary husband, that played a significant role in reaching out to the people of Andhra Pradesh ahead of the 2019 elections, while Jagan Reddy was in jail in connection with several embezzlement charges. This resulted in an impressive vote share for Jagan, in the 2019 A.P state elections, which saw Jagan’s YSRCP party wrest power from Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP. However, Sharmila and her husband Anil, were not given any legislative posts of importance in A.P, post Jagan’s 2019 win. On numerous occasions, she has expressed disappointment with her brother’s lack of reciprocation but contends that it’s his choice, at an individual level.
As of now, Sharmila’s relatively new Telangana based YSRTP party, has very few recognizable faces other than herself. Only time will tell whether she will emerge as strong as her brother.
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Can Jagan’s Sister Sharmila Make An Impact In Telangana?
Angry BRS (Bharat Rasthra Samithi, formerly TRS – Telangana Rashtra Samithi) workers, attacked a convoy of vehicles belonging to Sharmila Reddy’s YSRTP party (YSR Telangana party), in retaliation for her comments against Narsampet BRS party MLA, P Sudarshan Reddy.
A bus and a few vehicles in her convoy were set on fire by agitated BRS activists, following her reference to the BRS MLA’s alleged corruption. Sharmila reportedly intervened as her supporters clashed with those of the BRS party. She was taken into “preventive” custody on Tuesday, by the Warangal Police and was granted bail earlier on Wednesday (30 November 2022).
Sharmila, who launched the YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) last year, is the proverbial underdog in Telangana politics. She claims her party will emerge a major contender to Chandrashekar Rao’s ruling BRS (formerly, TRS) party in the 2023 Telangana polls. Her brother, Jagan Mohan Reddy is the incumbent Chief Minister of the “twin” Telugu state of Andhra Pradesh and leader of the YSRCP party.
Sources claim, not all is well with the once strong relationship between the brother-sister duo, the children of former chief minister of the larger, undivided Andhra Pradesh state, Y.S Rajashekar Reddy
(a.k.a YSR) who had vehemently opposed the bifurcation of the state into Andhra and Telangana. YSR died in a helicopter crash, in September 2009 while he was still Chief minister, giving rise to several conspiracy theories.
Y.S. Sharmila, who launched the YSRTP party in Telangana last year without the support of her brother, the current A.P chief minister and YSRCP leader Y.S.Jagan Reddy, has said that her brother’s support didn’t matter and that her newly launched party would contest all 119 seats in the 2023 Telangana assembly elections. She is being supported by her mother and her husband Morusupalli Anil Kumar (“Brother” Anil) who is a Christian evangelist/missionary and founder of “Anil World Evangelism”.
The entire family, including Jagan and Sharmila are practicing Christians and may have an edge with the Christian minority.
It’s early yet to predict whether Sharmila’s enthusiasm and optimism will turn into a sizeable vote share but political analysts speculate that she may cut into the share of the BRS party’s Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Minorities and Dalits. If that were to happen, it would be worrisome for the incumbent BRS party in Telangana and an advantage for the state’s BJP, which has witnessed a meteoric rise since the last state elections in 2018. The other parties in the fray, namely Congress and the TDP have lost their political relevance in Telangana since the 2014 bifurcation.
Touted to be a hotly fought contest between the BRS and the BJP, Sharmila’s YSRTP is the proverbial underdog that may end up with a surprising electoral result, forcing the BRS to take its potential appeal to the Minorities (especially Christian), Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes, seriously. The Telangana Muslim vote is likely to remain with the Hyderabad based, Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).
Sharmila claims her “padayatra” (walkathon) to personally connect with the common people of Telangana, will bring back memories of the legacy of her late father and former chief minister (YSR), based on the numerous welfare schemes he had launched in the undivided Andhra state. She was quoted stating “Many ruled me out in the beginning… that YSR is a long-gone era and he is no longer prevalent in Telangana, but I received a lot of warmth and love during the ‘padayatra’. Being YSR’s daughter will just be a launchpad for me; people will actually see my calibre…”. Sharmila who has been on a padayatra in Telangana since last October, claims that people are paying attention and showing interest in her vision, which is similar to her father’s vision of welfarism and upliftment of the lower classes.
It is worth noting that it was Sharmila and her missionary husband, that played a significant role in reaching out to the people of Andhra Pradesh ahead of the 2019 elections, while Jagan Reddy was in jail in connection with several embezzlement charges. This resulted in an impressive vote share for Jagan, in the 2019 A.P state elections, which saw Jagan’s YSRCP party wrest power from Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP. However, Sharmila and her husband Anil, were not given any legislative posts of importance in A.P, post Jagan’s 2019 win. On numerous occasions, she has expressed disappointment with her brother’s lack of reciprocation but contends that it’s his choice, at an individual level.
As of now, Sharmila’s relatively new Telangana based YSRTP party, has very few recognizable faces other than herself. Only time will tell whether she will emerge as strong as her brother.
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