Has YSR Telangana Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s sister Y S Sharmila given green signal for the merger of her party with the Congress?
The answer seems to be yes, if the ongoing developments are any indication.
Sharmila, who had greeted former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on his birthday recently and wished him all the success in his mission, had a telephonic talk with Telangana Congress Legislature Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Thursday.
Sharmila called on Bhatti, who had suffered sunstroke while undertaking padayatra at Nakirekal in Nalgonda district and enquired about his health.
She reportedly told him that his padayatra would be successful and hoped that it would be fetch good results for the Congress.
The YSRTP president already had two rounds of talks with Karnataka deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar and discussed with him the strategy to be adopted in the next elections. There would be clarity on her plans by this month end, sources said.
Meanwhile, former Khammam MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy also came down to Nakirekal and called on Bhatti.
The CLP leader welcomed the decision of Ponguleti to join Congress Party and invited him into the party on behalf of CLP.
Bhatti said Srinivas Reddy took the decision to join Congress as he realised that the only way to put an end to the corrupt and exploitative rule of KCR and to realise the objectives for which Telangana was achieved thanks to Sonia Gandhi is by bringing Congress Party back to power.
The CLP leader said that Ponguleti is convinced that people’s lives can be transformed for the better only when Congress Party formed the government in the next elections in Telangana.
He requested Srinivas Reddy and his group to play an important role in the reconstruction of Telangana as envisaged by Sonia Gandhi.
The date for the meeting to mark the conclusion of Padayatra and for official joining of several leaders into Congress Party will be decided after a meeting with top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Massive public meetings will be held as per the decision of AICC, Bhatti said.
He asserted that through Khammam public meeting, a powerful message will be sent and confidence be given to the public that the Congress Party would come to power.