YS Sharmila Joins Congress, Says She Will Work Towards Her Father's Dream of RaGa Becoming PM

Y S Sharmila, founder of YSR Telangana Party, joined Congress at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters in New Delhi on Thursday. She merged YSRTP with Congress in the presence of Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge.

“Today I am very happy to be merging YSRTP into the Congress party. It gives me immense joy that YSRTP is going to be part of Congress from today onwards,” Sharmila said while addressing the media.

She said that YS Rajasekhara Reddy, “leader of the people”, dedicated his whole life to serving the Congress party. “Today, he will be happy that his daughter is joining Congress party,” Sharmila said.

“Congress party is still the largest secular party of our country and it has always upheld the true culture of India and built foundations of our nation…,” Sharmila added.

She said that her father’s dream was for Rahul Gandhi to become the country’s prime minister. “I am glad that I will be working to make that dream possible,” she added.

Sharmila arrived in the national capital on Wednesday night.

A “very eminent personality” will join the party at 10.30 am on Thursday at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi, the Congress said on Wednesday.

Upon her arrival at the Delhi airport, when Sharmila was asked whether she was joining the Congress, she told reporters, “Yes, looks like it”.

Following a meeting she chaired in Hyderabad on Tuesday, Sharmila had said she and other leaders will meet the top brass of Congress, including AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi and make an important announcement.

Sharmila is the daughter of the former chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, and the younger sister of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Earlier, it was being said that she could be given a post in Congress at the national level after the merger of her party with the former.

Sharmila had announced her support to the Congress recently — during assembly elections in Telangana — to end the alleged corrupt and anti-people rule of the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi.