YS Sharmila.
Credits: PTI Photo
Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president Y S Sharmila is misusing her family name to create confusion among people but is making a fool of herself, a senior leader of the ruling YSR Congress party has said.
Senior party leader S Ramakrishna Reddy, who is advisor (public affairs) to the YSRCP government in the state, said all the party leaders were feeling bad after listening to the choice of worlds and tone and tenor of Sharmila's speech after taking over as the APCC chief and the manner in which she addressed her brother.
"She is making a fool of herself by misusing her family name 'YS' to create confusion among people. There is no room for that confusion and there is no need for anyone to get confused," Ramakrishna Reddy told reporters on Sunday.
He said that party activists had been hurt by her attack on her elder brother.
Ramakrishna Reddy said he felt a sense of "pity" for Sharmila as she emerged suddenly in Andhra Pradesh after her "experiments" in Telangana.
He sought to remind Sharmila that it was the same party which jailed her brother Jagan Mohan Reddy allegedly illegally for 16 months and also included her father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's name in corruption cases.
According to Ramakrishna Reddy, Sharmila altered her accent, tone and tenor on seeing some Congress party supporters and mostly allegedly reiterated the dialogues uttered by TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu.
He alleged that Sharmila's goal was to make Chandrababu Naidu the chief minister, who he said would be using her as his last weapon to split the votes of Rajasekhara Reddy's supporters and delivered a speech targeting Dalits and minorities.
Ramakrishna Reddy said though Sharmila chipped in for her brother when he was jailed, now she has gone to the extent of allegedly calling him a dictator.
Following her sudden emergence in Andhra Pradesh's political scene, he asked Sharmila as to what she did all these days in Telangana.
Former TTD chairman and senior YSRCP leader Y V Subba Reddy termed the Congress party as an entity which divided the united Andhra Pradesh disregarding the concerns of the Andhra people.
Meanwhile, senior YSRCP leader and Rajya Sabha member V Vijayasai Reddy observed that Andhra Pradesh played a pivotal role in catapulting the Congress to form the government at the Centre in 2004 and 2009 but it did not reciprocate to its needs.
"However, when it was time to reciprocate, AP's needs were overlooked by the Congress. The people of AP have learned a tough lesson, they will for once trust a snake but not the Congress," Vijayasai Reddy said in a post on 'X' (formerly Twitter).