NEW DELHI
After being in talks with Congress, YSR Telangana Party’s chief Y.S. Sharmila Reddy has announced to contest the upcoming Assembly elections separately. Analysts in the state suggest that her party would have minor to no impact in the political space of the state. However, a section in the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) are aware that she could take some anti-incumbency votes of the party.
Yet, talking to The Sunday Guardian, several analysts said that her standing in the state is almost non-existent and to make an electoral dent to either of the two contending parties (BRS and Congress) seems less possible. Thereby, a political analyst said, there is little chance that her party would be able to divide votes or prove to be a vote-cutter.
As a result, in recent times, there hasn’t been any appeal the party (YSRTP) has created among popular leaders who have therefore distanced from joining the party. The party is also facing dearth of strong leaders on all the constituencies who could solidly represent their constituencies as the party has decided to contest on all 119 assembly seats in the state.
An analyst based in Telangana told The Sunday Guardian, “YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) president Y.S. Sharmila will be contesting in two constituencies Paleru and Miryalaguda, and there is high probability that she will lose both her seats. Not only that, her party will lose deposits on the overwhelming majority of seats. The reason being they will give tickets randomly as they don’t have mass leaders or a brand leader that can sell in the state. They already know the electorate will vote to make either Congress or BRS win. However, there is one way they can create some minor ripples and that would be if they tap the dissatisfied ticket aspirants in both the parties by giving them tickets. There are also assessments according to current trends suggesting that the party may not be able to cross 2 to 3 percent vote share in the Assembly elections.
Last month, Y.S. Sharmila had met Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, after which she claimed “constructive discussions” and warned KCR to expect defeat. But there has been resistance from Telangana Congress boss Revanth Reddy who has been unwilling to accept her in the party. In an open statement, Reddy had said, “There was no question of her allying with the national party.”
On Thursday, Y.S. Sharmila put an end to speculation that her outfit will ally with the Congress to consolidate votes against the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi. She said she had waited four months for that deal. “Now no one can blame us for splitting the anti-KCR (Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao) vote. We tried our best,” she said.
Sharmila, who is also Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s sister, also said there was demand for her mother Y.S. Vijayalakshmi and husband Anil Kumar to contest. “If needed they will also contest. My mother has said she will do whatever is needed to support me. She made that promise when I launched my party that she will stand by me,” she said.