Sharmila ‘drops’ Congress merger plan; YSRTP to contest in 119 constituencies

YS Sharmila would be contesting from Palair constituency in the erstwhile Khammam district

Hyderabad: All the hype around the merger of the YSR Telangana Party’s (YSRTP) with the Congress appears to have fizzled out with YS Sharmila announcing on Thursday that her party would field candidates from all 119 constituencies in the forthcoming Telangana Assembly elections.

She herself would be contesting from Palair constituency in the erstwhile Khammam district, she said, inviting leaders to file applications for party B forms.

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Sharmila had met Congress Parliamentary Party president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi at New Delhi on August 31. After the meeting, she had said that the merger was in the final stage. She also met Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shiva Kumar at a hotel in the city on last month to discuss a few aspects of the merger. Apart from Shiva Kumar, former MP KVP Ramachandra Rao was also believed to have been supporting the merger of YSRTP with the Congress party.

However, all the plans appear to have fallen apart now, with Sharmila indicating that she had waited long enough and that she would go ahead on her own. The decision to this effect was taken after a party meeting here on Thursday.

Addressing party workers, Sharmila said the party would give a tough fight to opponents in all the constituencies. “A demand has been put forth asking me to contest from one more constituency as well, but no decision has been taken yet,” Sharmila said.

“Pressure was being exerted’ to field Anil Kumar (Sharmila’s husband) and mother YS Vijayamma from any of the 119 constituencies. If required, they too would contest the elections, she said.

On the reasons behind failure in merging the party with Congress, the YSRTP founder said there was an opinion that if both Congress and YSRTP would jointly contest the elections, then there would be a split in the votes.

“If the anti-incumbency votes get split, it will benefit the ruling BRS party and K Chandrashekhar Rao will become the Chief Minister again,” she said, adding that YSRTP had waited for the Congress to respond for four months.

However, Congress insiders hint that the Congress had purposefully kept quiet on the merger since many Congress leaders in Telangana were not keen on the move. Some had in fact come out publicly against Sharmila’s plans to merge her party with the Congress. On September 3, after a party meeting at Gandhi Bhavan, former MP Renuka Chowdhary had slammed Sharmila over her remarks that the merger had reached the final stage, and said there was no formal announcement from the Congress high command.

TPCC president A Revanth Reddy had also feigned ignorance on the YSRTP’s merger. “I don’t know. The Gandhis meet many leaders. Since the merger is connected with Telangana Congress, they will definitely inform me but there is no message so far.” Revanth Reddy had said.