HYDERABAD: ON the 73rd birth anniversary of her late father YS Rajasekhara Reddy, YS Sharmila unveiled her political outfit, YSR Telangana Party on Thursday, July 8, 2021, sending out a message loud and clear that she was ready to take on her brother and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to safeguard Telangana’s share of Krishna waters.
She also made an announcement that she would take out a padayatra across Telangana after 100 days to ingrain among people her party’s philosophy of welfare, self-reliance and equality and at the same to expose Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s government.
Sharmila is not new to Telangana, as in 2012, she had taken out a padayatra across the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh when Jagan Mohan Reddy was in jail, following his arrest in disproportionate assets case.
Though she did not refer to him by name and kept calling him the ‘Chief Minister of the neighbouring State’, Sharmila cast aspersions on Jagan for not sitting with his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao to iron out the dispute in Krishna water sharing. “Both of them had met in the past and dined together. But they are not ready to sit together for two minutes and resolve the water sharing issue. Neither leader cares for the interests of his respective State,” she said.
Sharmila repeatedly referred to the inaction of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao even as the “leader of the neighbouring State” continued the construction of irrigation projects for the last two years. “But I will stand by you and stand up to them to protect the Telangana’s share of waters. I will not lose even one drop of water that belongs to us and would not seek one if it belongs to Andhra Pradesh. I want a just share,” she said.
While speaking on women empowerment, Sharmila said in the next Assembly elections, her party would field women in 50 per cent of the seats. She also vowed to fight for the interests of the BCs and that party tickets would be allotted to the BCs in proportion to their population.
When her mother YS Vijayamma, who spoke first, referred to Jagan Mohan Reddy, there was a huge applause from the audience, contrary to the impression that in Telangana, people were against him in the wake of the ongoing water dispute. As she spoke about him and Sharmila and how they were following in the footsteps of their father, the meeting came alive with the crowd cheering lustily and raising slogans in response.
Key promises
Sharmila said she was ready to take on her brother and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to safeguard Telangana’s share of Krishna waters.
She announced that she would take out a padayatra across Telangana to expose the failures of the KCR government.
She vowed to field women in 50 per cent of the seats in the next Assembly elections. She also promised to fight for the interest of BCs.