Congress Woos YS Sharmila for Alliance Ahead of Telangana Polls; No Question of Merger, Say Party Sources

After YSRTP chief YS Sharmila announced that she is “ready to talk to anyone” ready to oust the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) led by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, News18.com has learned that Sharmila’s Talks have taken place between the Congress and Congress, amid strong speculation of forming an alliance in the state ahead of the assembly elections later this year.

Top YSRTP sources have confirmed to News18.com that the Congress high command, in particular, Priyanka Gandhi’s team, is in touch with Sharmila to persuade her to join forces with the grand old party.

According to party sources, the proposal to merge the YSRTP with the Congress was strongly rejected by Sharmila.

“There is no question of YSRTP merging with the Congress as Sharmila is motivating supporters on her own,” he said. A senior YSRTP leader told News18.com, “The Congress high command has reached out to us with various proposals, which cannot be disclosed, but the matter is still at an initial stage.”

Sources have also confirmed that talks between the two sides took place on the sidelines of the Karnataka elections, especially in the last 10 days. There is strong talk that Sharmila has been approached by the Congress with the option of giving her a Rajya Sabha seat, as well as taking on Sharmila’s brother Jagan Mohan Reddy to lead the party from the front in Andhra Pradesh. And there is a shortage of workers. ,

“The Congress is keen to bring together like-minded parties to avoid division of votes, which would benefit KCR in Telangana. They also want to capitalize on the fact that Sharmila is the daughter of late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, the tallest Congress leader ever, under whose leadership the party swept through undivided Andhra Pradesh. The Congress fears that Sharmila will eat into their vote bank, which is why they are reaching out to us, but nothing concrete has developed,” said the source cited above.

When asked whether Sharmila was seriously considering the Congress’s offer because of the YSR family’s bitter history with the Grand Old Party, which forced Jagan to desert the Gandhi family, the sources quoted above reiterated that Jagan and Both Sharmila have planned separate political careers and were free to make their choices.

“Our primary focus is on Telangana, Sharmila’s only target is to oust KCR. We will contest all 119 seats.

News18.com also contacted two senior Congress leaders within the state’s local leadership to confirm the developments, but both said they were “unaware of such matters”.