Y S Sharmila, sister of Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and president of YSR Telangana Party, has applied brakes to her marathon padayatra across Telangana owing to model code of conduct brought in force by the Election Commission on the occasion of MLC elections under local bodies’ quota.
The EC on Tuesday announced that no political rallies, public meetings and padayatras would be allowed in the districts where elections to vacant MLC seats under local bodies’ quota would be held next month.
The nomination process for elections to 12 MLC seats in Telangana will commence on November 16 and the election process will come to an end on December 16.
The polling will be held on December 10 and the counting of votes would take place on December 14.
Accordingly, Shamila, too, deferred her padayatra and is expected to resume only after December 16. She said she had successfully completed padayatra for 21 days covering six assembly constituencies – Chevella, Maheshwaram, Shamshabad, Ibrahimpatnam, Devarakonda and Munugode.
“I have decided to halt the padayatra, respecting the rules and regulations of the Election Commission. It is only temporary and I shall resume the padayatra, soon after the model code of conduct comes to an end,” she said.
Sharmila claimed that there was a tremendous response to her padayatra in the last three weeks.
“I have covered 150 villages and heard hundreds of issues pertaining to the people. Thousands of people had joined hands with us and walked with us,” she said.
She claimed that thousands of problems had come to her notice during the padayatra.
“Many of the projects started during the Y S Rajasekhar Reddy regime are yet to be completed. In many villages, old people are not getting pensions and women are not getting loans,” she said.
Sharmila announced that she would take up 72-hour long fast at Hyderabad from Friday demanding that the K Chandrasekhar Rao government purchase every grain of paddy cultivated in the state instead of throwing the blame on the Centre.