Upbeat over the appointment of Y.S. Sharmila as the president of Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), the party cadre in the Rayalaseema districts are busy chalking out area-wise action plans for the campaign for the forthcoming elections.
The cadres said that Ms. Sharmila’s entry into the Congress a few months before the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh was crucial for the Rayalaseema region which used to be a bastion of the Congress till the 2014 elections.
They said that the Congress retained its domination in all elections held in the Rayalaseema region in the last four decades, except in 1983 when the TDP swept the polls.
APCC vice-president D. Rambhupal Reddy said that Ms. Sharmila’s entry into the Congress meant “a death blow to the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in the State and its intensity would be bigger in Rayalaseema.”
“We have conducted several public surveys on various issues. The majority of the vote bank of the YSRCP is the chunk which was once with Congress. Ten years after the State bifurcation, the people are slowly realising now that YSRCP has failed them. Now, the YSRCP leadership is claiming the legacy of Congress leader Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. With Ms. Sharmila joining the Congress, she can scuttle the hijacking of YSR’s legacy by the YSRCP,” said Mr. Rambhupal Reddy.
The party cadres also opined that Ms. Sharmila would make a big impact on the political landscape of Rayalaseema in 2024 elections, predominantly in the undivided Kadapa district.
A Congress senior leader, on condition of anonymity, said, “Miraculous changes are going to happen in Rayalaseema in the next two weeks.”
He said that the entry of Ms. Sharmila into the Congress was “not an overnight development”. “Senior Congress leaders of Telangana and Karnataka were also involved in this decision. This might influence the political scene in districts from Annamayya to Kurnool on the western side,” he said.
“The question is not whether or not the Congress would come to power. The maximum effort will be on improving the vote share of the party to more than 15%. Ms. Sharmila can achieve this and it might pave the roadmap for 2029 ,” said another leader.
Sunitha Narredy to join Congress?
Meanwhile, speculations did the rounds in the Rayalaseema region on January 17 (Wednesday) that Sunitha Narreddy, daughter of slain Kadapa MP Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy, would also join the Congress in a few days.
In response to it, Congress senior leaders observed that nothing was surprising in it. Ms. Sharmila has lent her “staunch support” to Ms. Sunitha in the issue related to the brutal murder of Vivekananda Reddy, they said.
