Y S Sharmila, daughter of former chief minister of combined Andhra Pradesh Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy and president of YSR Telangana Party, is getting ready for the launch of her marathon padayatra across the length and breadth of Telangana, from October 20.
This is not the first time that Sharmila is undertaking padayatra. Earlier, she undertook padayatra for over 3,000 kilometres from October 18, 2012 to August 4, 2013 across 14 districts of combined Andhra Pradesh in the name of “Maro Praja Prashthanam” (Another people’s journey).
But her earlier padayatra had a different purpose – to sustain the YSR Congress party floated by her brother Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, when he was in jail in connection with the CBI case. This time, she has a completely different mission.
According to sources from the YSRTP, Sharmila is planning to follow the path shown by Jagan during his padayatra in Andhra Pradesh between November 2017 and January 2019.
Like her brother, she would also walk through rural areas, interact with farmers and rural youth, address a series of meetings at select places, highlight the failures of KCR government and make promises on the lines of her father YSR.
Sharmila already announced that popular political strategist Prashant Kishor would be guiding her, as he had done for Jagan in the past. He already held a series of meetings with her, giving suggestions to her on how to go about.
On Wednesday, a full-fledged team from Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC) headed by Prashant Kishor, had taken charge of Sharmila’s political campaign. The team members had a long discussion with Sharmila at Lotus Pond to discuss the strategies.
The team came up with a blue print on her padayatra, besides giving suggestions on strengthening of the party at the grassroots level, expansion of the party network and other such issues.
Hereafter, the team will have an office at Lotus Pond and prepare the action plan for YSRTP in the coming days, sources said.