Andhra Pradesh set for Jagan vs Sharmila battle

Hyderabad: Y S Sharmila, who once said that she was an “arrow released by Jagan anna against opposition parties”, will now have to take aim at her own brother after the Congress high command appointed her as the chief of the party unit in Andhra Pradesh.

The central leadership issued orders to this effect on Tuesday, putting the brother and sister on a collision course as the Congress hopes to rise from the ashes in the state where Jaganmohan Reddy is the Chief Minister and his party, YSRCP, dominant.

The Andhra Pradesh Assembly polls will be held along with Lok Sabha polls and the Congress move will definitely spice up the contest, though it remains to be seen as to what impact Sharmila's parachuting into the state will have on the grand old party's morale and fortunes.

The current chief, Gidugu Rudra Raju, had resigned from his post on Monday and he was appointed as a special invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC). 

Sharmila’s move is being seen as an embarrassment to Jagan at a time when he is fighting severe anti-incumbency and also engaged in a bruising electoral fight with the TDP-Jana Sena combine.

“It's going to be a direct fight between the brother and sister," noted political analyst and senior journalist Telakapalli Ravi told DH. "It all depends on how far she can go against her brother in Andhra Pradesh politics. In fact, it's more of a test for Sharmila as she was highly unsuccessful in Telangana. For Jagan, it's equally embarrassing but also a weapon as he can go to the electorate saying that everyone, including his own blood relations, ganged up against him."  

When Jagan was cooling his heels in jail in a quid-pro-quo case in 2012, Sharmila embarked upon a 3,100-km-long padayatra across the state and kept his YSRCP afloat. She also stood apart in the YSRCP’s campaign in the 2019 polls, in which the party registered a landslide victory. However, she fell out with Jagan after he didn’t credit her contribution to the YSRCP’s massive win.

With her entry, the Congress, which has been facing a leadership crisis at the local level, may become a magnet for disgruntled leaders in the YSRCP.  

After 2014's bifurcation of the state, the Congress was wiped out in Andhra Pradesh: in the 2019 polls, its candidates polled less than NOTA votes, an astonishing fall for a party that was a formidable force in undivided Andhra under the leadership of Sharmila and Jagan's father, Y S Rajashekhar Reddy.  

It is widely believed that Jagan’s YSRCP had eaten away the Congress' core vote-bank of Dalits and minorities in Andhra Pradesh.

Sharmila joined the Congress by merging her YSRTP with the grand old party on January 4 in Delhi in the presence of AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi. At the time of joining the Congress, Sharmila said she would take up whatever responsibility given by the leadership.

On January 2 in Hyderabad, before officially joining the Congress, Sharmila told her supporters that the AICC had offered her the posts of APCC chief and national general secretary. 

While initially she was reluctant to take up the Congress party’s responsibility in Andhra Pradesh, Sharmila is said to have eventually finally fallen in line.

In a meeting on December 27 in Delhi, a number of leaders from Andhra Pradesh told the Congress leadership that the induction of Sharmila will help in rejuvenating the party ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

But murmurs of disquiet are also being heard among a section of the party. Former Amalapuram MP GV Harsha Kumar was openly critical about Sharmila’s entry into the state, saying she is trying to gain some political foothold in Andhra Pradesh after being rejected in Telangana.

Quote - It all depends on how far she can go against her brother in Andhra Pradesh politics. In fact it's more a test for Sharmila as she was highly unsuccessful in Telangana. For Jagan it's equally embarrassing but also a weapon as he can go to the electorate saying that everyone including his own blood relations ganged up against him - Telakapalli Ravi political analyst and senior journalist