GG News Bureau
Andhra Pradesh, 28th April. Take care of your color. That’s the standard counsel given to reporters covering Andhra Pradesh political parties. In a Telugu Desam meeting, wearing yellow will make you feel comfortable and at ease.
But under the YSRCP, which swears by white, blue, and green, that same yellow would be looked upon.
The president of the Congress party in Andhra Pradesh, YS Sharmila Reddy, the sister of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, realized that other politicians are not free either. In a fairly intimate remark, Jagan mentioned that Sharmila had invited TDP head Chandrababu Naidu to her son’s wedding in January while donning a yellow saree.
“Dressed in a yellow saree, she paid them a visit. The YSRCP head claimed, “Now she has a share in their atrocities and reads from their scripts.” Startled, Sharmila retaliated, denouncing Jagan as “uncultured” and deeming it shameful for a chief minister in office to make remarks regarding the attire of a lady, particularly his own younger sister. She went one step farther and said that Jagan’s remarks were disrespectful to all women, not just herself. She questioned whether TDP owned the color yellow and questioned what was wrong with wearing it. The irony is that Sakshi TV, a Jagan-owned tabloid, had a yellow masthead until recently, when it was altered to blue.
Since the Congress isn’t thought to have the strength to gain seats and have an influence on the ground, all political parties in Andhra Pradesh mostly ignore it. Only Pawan Kalyan of the Jana Sena and Naidu are the targets of Jagan’s gun training. But as soon as you enter Kadapa during this election, you see that Sharmila is the one applying pressure on the YSRCP. The Congress has fielded Sharmila in the Kadapa parliamentary constituency, where she will face off against her YSRCP cousin YS Avinash Reddy. Due to Avinash’s alleged involvement in the 2019 murder of Sharmila and Jagan’s uncle, YS Vivekananda Reddy, the conflict has become extremely personal and intense. Sharmila thinks it is unacceptable that Jagan granted Avinash the ticket in spite of the charges in the CBI-investigated case against him.
When Jagan saw the YSRCP was being attacked in Kadapa, he decided to strike back. He added that the residents of Kadapa knew who killed Vivekananda Reddy, even though he was giving Avinash Reddy a clean sheet. He asked, “Isn’t it true that he had a second wife?” in an attempt to imply that a lot of other potential explanations for the crime had not been looked into. However, the Andhra people also perceive it as an instance of the family washing their soiled linens in public.
Part of Jagan’s plan to paint the Congress with the same brush that brings the TDP, Jana Sena, and BJP together is his perceiving red above yellow. The way they have fought over family matters and the YSR legacy, which is currently thought to be a Jagan preserve, is what has elevated this verbal sparring between brothers to a high TRP. To claim her place in the YSR heritage, Sharmila decided to add her maiden surname, Reddy. Revanth Reddy, the Chief Minister of Telangana, really called YS Sharmila Reddy the “real YSR.”
When it came to asking people to choose YSR’s true heir, Jagan did not hold back, lamenting that his two sisters, Sharmila and Suneetha (the daughter of Vivekananda Reddy), had allied themselves with those attempting to obliterate YSR’s legacy from public consciousness.
Jagan knows that Sharmila’s candidature would have some support in Kadapa as she is YSR’s daughter. As a result, he is charging Naidu of masterminding a scheme and saying that supporting the Congress equals supporting Naidu. If we split our votes, who will win? Chandrababu Naidu will do.
Additionally, the long-standing hostility for the Congress has surfaced. Jagan has attempted to capitalize on the emotional tension by accusing the Congress of splitting Andhra Pradesh in half and asked if anyone would support the party that took the controversial stand. The accusation that the Congress attempted to damage YSR’s reputation by adding his name to the chargesheet for the disproportionate assets case after his death was, however, far more important. Sharmila denied the accusation, asserting that Jagan had inserted YSR’s name in order to secure YSR’s release on bond.
The political war has taken on the appearance of a Telugu soap opera due to the accusations and counter-allegations. Following his appointment as chief minister, Jagan refuted Sharmila’s claim that he had “forgotten the family” and stated that he “had not come to power to accumulate wealth or advance his family’s interests”. At this point, the story took a turn for the better. Sharmila’s declaration cast doubt on Jagan’s alleged “not caring about the family” as it revealed that he had lent her Rs 82 crore. Sharmila tried to make it clear that what should have been hers by inheritance had instead been handed to her as a loan that now needed to be paid back, so as not to give the impression that the brother was being kind.
While Jagan is occupied with visiting various regions of the state, his industrialist spouse Bharathi Reddy will be in action in the Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency and Pulivendula assembly seat, from which he is running. The political rivalry between the sisters-in-law would undoubtedly intensify the heat and dust in Kadapa.
