The exercise of YS Sharmila, daughter of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and sister of AP Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, joining the Congress party culminated with a 30-minute meeting with Sonia Gandhi. Sharmila began discussions about joining the party with Karnataka Deputy CM D K Shivakumar after the Karnataka election results. There were speculations that she would be made the chief of AP Congress and would challenge Jagan. However, Sharmila had not confirmed or denied anything about her move to join the Congress.
There were discussions about why Sharmila wanted to focus on Telangana instead of showing her strength in AP if she had differences with her brother. Sharmila was a popular campaigner for Jaganmohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh. It was also reported that many in Telangana Congress were not positive about recommending her name to the party high command.
It remains to be seen whether the Congress has given Sharmila the green signal to join the party and how they plan to utilize her services. Sharmila held talks with Sonia Gandhi for about 30 minutes, but the Congress has not made any official statement about her plan to join or merge her party with them.
The Congress is preparing for the upcoming Assembly election in Telangana and aims to dethrone the ruling Bharath Rashtra Samithi. They are determined to form a government in Telangana after being unable to do so since its formation in 2014.
