HYDERABAD: As if a throwback into the past, YSR Telangana Party president YS Sharmila, on Friday, declared that her padayatra will commence about three months from now from Chevella — the village from where her late father YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s 1,500-km peregrination began in 2003.
Speaking at her maiden press conference after founding her party on July 8, Sharmila said she was taking out a padayatra because the people are suffering. “If the people have no problems there is no need for me to undertake a padayatra,” she said. She also said that her party would not contest the Huzurabad bypoll as it is a “meaningless” byelection.
Sharmila, who covered a wide gamut of issues, argued that her father was never against Telangana or its formation. “If you go and ask the people in villages, they would tell you the emotional bonding they had with him. It was YSR who, in 2000, took a delegation to the party high command and sought the creation of Telangana. In 2004 and 2009, it was at his instance that Telangana was included in the UPA’s manifesto,” she said.
She dismissed Congress and the BJP as parties of no consequence and said that it was her party alone that was the Opposition in the State. She dismissing as ridiculous the reports that she had been propped up by the BJP (to wean away Congress voters) as she had not been critical of the saffron party though several of the promises made in the AP Reorganisation Act remained unfulfilled.
“I want to make it very clear. We are opposed to the BJP, and if necessary, we will fight with the party even at Delhi,” she said.She made it clear that she would not compromise on Telangana’s interests, particularly those related to its share of river waters. Referring to the gazette notification by the Centre entrusting the control of the dams to the Krishna and Godavari water management boards, she said the situation had come to pass because KCR had never bothered about the problem.