While Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao inaugurated an office for the newly minted Bharat Rashtra Samithi in New Delhi, YSR Telangana Party chief YS Sharmila was detained by the police in Telangana once again. The daughter of former chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh, YS Rajasekhara Reddy, and the sister of Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, has been in the news in the past couple of weeks. Till now, she has been detained by police twice and had also launched a fast-unto-death after the Telangana government refused to give her permission for her padayatra.
The high-octane drama, which included the visual of her car being towed away while she was sitting in it, has observers asking one question: what’s her game plan in Telangana? Are all her moves gimmicks, or is there a larger strategy at play?
The popular perception remains that she is the “B team” of the Bharatiya Janata Party. As political analyst Telkapalli Ravi puts it: “She is called the B team of BJP because she seldom attacks the saffron party, whereas she has repeatedly spoken against the TRS. She has written to CAG regarding irregularities in the Kaleshwaram project. That is why she is said to have the support of BJP. There are rumours that Prime Minister Narendra Modi called her recently and enquired about the developments in Telangana. Governor Tamilsai Soundararajan, a BJP leader, came out in her support. However, she is still not relevant in Telangana. Though her recent clashes have got her some press, most of it comes from Andhra Pradesh. Her moves remind you of a young Mamata Banerjee who rose to prominence after similar clashes with the police and the government.”
However, does her rumoured association with the central party cause a dent in her prospects in Telangana? Another political analyst says that it’s high time Sharmila established that she is an independent player. “In the last few weeks, Sharmila has got a lot of visibility. However, people are not clear about whether she is fighting on her own or is some other party’s stooge. This shows that she has to work harder to increase her political relevance. She must also associate with some prominent faces. Her biggest challenge is to convince people that she is working independently and is not being remote-controlled by anyone. She cannot afford to be called someone’s B team. She got a lot of press after rumours emerged that Modi called her after she clashed with the Telangana government. I feel such rumours do her more harm than good,” he added.
YS Sharmila has been on a padayatra in Telangana since last October. She has covered over 3,000 km, talking to people on the way. The two main planks of her campaign have been the golden days of her father’s government which she promised to bring back, and the corruption in the TRS government. From her repeated diatribe against the pink party, it is evident that there cannot be any association between the two. However, another political observer begs to differ.
“It is strange that the TRS government is going full throttle against Sharmila after she has already covered 3,000 km padayatra. Why this sudden interest? It is a tactic to divert the media from the liquor scam that Nizamabad MLC K Kavitha is embroiled in,” said political analyst Kambalapally Krishna, who runs a consultancy called Voice of Telangana and Andhra. In fact, he feels that TRS is a co-producer in this political drama, along with the BJP and YSRTP. “TRS wants to divide the anti-incumbency votes among different parties. This will make sure that no other party challenges them,” he added.
The Reddys, one of the most prominent communities in Telangana, will jump to YSRTP when they do not get tickets from TRS, Congress or BJP, said Krishna. “YSRTP does not have any cadre on the ground. They can only depend on turncoats from other parties. The situation is the same for the BJP too,” he added. The analyst also feels that Sharmila’s claim of belonging to Telangana sounded hollow when her family had always opposed the formation of Telangana.
In the most recent development, Sharmila’s movements were obstructed by the police even after the high court gave her permission for the padayatra. She lashed out: “Is this democracy or Afghanistan? Is this the golden Telangana KCR often refers to, where our fundamental rights are trampled under the iron feet of the abusive government machinery?”
It remains to be seen what path Sharmila charts in the crowded political space in Telangana.
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