It’s all in the family and it’s all about family. Which sums up the political situation in the Kadapa parliamentary constituency in Andhra Pradesh, which goes to the polls on May 13. The family is that of two-time chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, popularly known as YSR.
The electoral battle is between YSR’s daughter and state Congress president Y S Sharmila, who is contesting the elections for the first time, and her cousin and two-time sitting MP Y S Avinash Reddy, who is contesting on a YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) ticket.
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But the real fight is within the YSR family – between Sharmila and her brother, YSRCP president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. Both siblings are fighting for the political legacy of their father, leaving it to the people of Kadapa to decide who is the real political heir of YSR.
Sharmila, who played a major role in the YSRCP emerging as a major political force in the state since it was founded by Jagan in March 2011, and stood solidly behind the party when he was in jail for 16 months between 2012 and 2013, had felt neglected after he came to power in May 2019.
“When Jagan was in jail, I undertook a padayatra (foot march) for 3,200 km across Andhra Pradesh. I left behind my house and children to be on the road, braving hot sun and rains. Whenever required, I stood by Jagan anna (brother) to work for his victory, but the day when he became chief minister, he changed,” Sharmila said soon after taking over as the Andhra Congress chief in January.
In a bid to prove that she also carried the political legacy of her father, Sharmila founded YSR Telangana Party in July 2022 and undertook a foot march across Telangana for 3,800 km. But after realising that she had no role to play in Telangana, she merged her party with the Congress, which assigned her the task of reviving the party in Andhra Pradesh.
Now, Sharmila has entered the fray in the Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency to re-establish her claim for YSR’s legacy, which she says was usurped by Jagan.
But she needed a strong emotive issue to turn the tide in her favour in Kadapa, and she picked up the issue of the murder of her uncle (her father’s younger brother), Y S Vivekananda Reddy, former Kadapa MP, who was hacked to death in his house at Pulivendula on March 15, 2019, weeks before the general elections in Andhra Pradesh.
She has a strong reason to raise this issue in the ongoing elections, as her rival, Y S Avinash Reddy, is one of the accused in the Vivekananda Reddy murder, as mentioned in the charge sheet by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the case for the past four years.
Sharmila has been taking the Vivekananda Reddy murder issue strongly to the people not only to create a tough situation for Avinash Reddy in the elections, but also to embarrass Jagan. She accused her brother of shielding the accused in Vivekananda Reddy’s murder.
“It is atrocious that Jagan has given the party ticket to Avinash Reddy again, despite knowing that the latter was an accused in the Vivekananda Reddy murder case. The CBI has all the evidence to prove that Avinash was the mastermind behind the murder,” Sharmila said, addressing a gathering at a roadshow in Kadapa on Saturday.
She said she was contesting the elections only because she did not want the murder accused to enter the Lok Sabha. “Had Jagan given the ticket to any other candidate, I would not have contested,” she said.
Sharmila has got strong support from Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter Narreddy Sunitha, who has been waging a legal battle to get justice in the case. Sunitha is also actively campaigning in the elections, accusing Jagan of protecting the real culprits. “Why Jagan, who had earlier demanded a CBI inquiry into the murder, had later withdrawn the same, and why the YSRCP cadre prevented the CBI authorities from taking Avinash Reddy into custody for questioning?” Sunitha asked.
Jagan, however, defended his decision to field Avinash Reddy in Kadapa again, as he believed the young man had done nothing wrong. “Sharmila, who joined hands with my rivals, is attempting to ruin his life, but I stand by him,” he said after filing his nomination in Pulivendula on April 26.
The YSRCP president alleged that Sharmila, who wears a yellow saree, a colour represented by Chandrababu Naidu’s Telegu Desam Party, has joined hands with those who worked to erase the legacy of YSR. “How can she claim to be YSR’s successor? It is the people who will decide who is the real successor of YSR,” he said.
The sibling rivalry has thrown up an interesting battle in Kadapa. “There’s no doubt that Kadapa is the bastion of the YSR family. But the entry of Sharmila in the fray has made the elections a family feud,” said E Anjaneyulu, a correspondent of a vernacular daily in Kadapa town.
There are 1.63 million voters in Kadapa constituency, which comprises the seven assembly segments of Kadapa, Jammalamadugu, Pulivendula, Badvel, Kamalapuram, Mydukur and Proddatur. There are 800,858 male voters, and 837,993 women voters.
“Sharmila has been able to generate a lot of sympathy among the women voters, though a large number of these voters are the beneficiaries of various welfare schemes of the Jagan government. Nevertheless, the Vivekananda Reddy murder case has become a major political issue in the elections and Sharmila scored a point over Jagan in that count,” Anjaneyulu said.
Telugu Desam Party has fielded Chadipiralla Bhupesh Subbarami Reddy, but he appears to be a non-serious candidate in the battle between Sharmila and Avinash Reddy. “Many believe that he is a dummy candidate and there is a talk that there would be large-scale cross voting by the TDP supporters in favour of Sharmila,” said T Prasad Rao, a young graduate from Mydukuru assembly segment, where the TDP is a strong contender.
Avinash Reddy, however, is confident he would score a hat-trick in the elections, as he had fulfilled all the promises made in the party manifesto. “Let them fight the elections on the issue of development and welfare. Why should they raise an issue which is in the court? They are unleashing a smear campaign against me,” he said during an election meeting in Kadapa last week.
