Sibling rivalry: On Y.S. Sharmila emerging from Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s shadow

A long-rumoured political family feud is now in the open with the merger of the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Telangana Party led by Y.S. Sharmila, who is the 50-year-old daughter of the late Chief Minister of unified Andhra Pradesh, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, and the younger sibling of the incumbent Chief Minister of present-day Andhra Pradesh, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, with the Congress. Emerging from her brother’s shadow, Ms. Sharmila began her political life following his arrest in May 2012 in a disproportionate assets case. She undertook a 3,000-kilometre padayatra for the fledgling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) that Mr. Jagan Mohan had floated in 2011 after being sidelined by the Congress following their father’s death in a helicopter crash in 2009. Ms. Sharmila was widely credited for the YSRCP’s victory in 15 of 18 Assembly constituencies in the by-elections held in 2012, but was not given her due within the party. Nor did she contest in any election, leading to speculations of sibling rivalry and a rift within the YSR family. These speculations gained currency when she was not recognised for her work and her popularity during the 2019 Assembly elections that pivoted her brother to the Chief Minister’s post for the first time.

It was a foregone conclusion that the YSR Telangana would fail despite Ms. Sharmila’s spirited attempt to revive her political fortunes with a Statewide padayatra that mirrored her efforts in 2012. The YSR family had thrown its weight behind the Samakhya Andhra movement, which opposed the formation of Telangana. Several legislators and Members of Parliament from the YSRCP had resigned in protest against the then Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government’s decision to carve out Telangana from the former provinces of the Hyderabad princely State. Ms. Sharmila must have known that her decision to re-enter Telangana politics would be a hard sell to the State’s residents. For the Congress, she is a major asset and part of a possible tactical move to checkmate her brother. Once considered a Congress citadel, Andhra Pradesh has blanked out the party in Assembly and Parliamentary elections since 2014, with an unforgiving electorate blaming it for letting go of vital industries and resources centred around Hyderabad. Having someone who fought for the State to be unified and with the legacy of the hugely popular mass leader such as Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the Congress can, at the very least, nurse some hope of reviving its fortunes in the State.