YS Sharmila calls for ouster of Andhra CM

Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president YS Sharmila on Friday called for ouster of her brother, YSR Congress president and chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, from power, if the state has to be brought back on the tracks of development.
Sharmila, who is contesting the coming Lok Sabha elections from Kadapa parliamentary constituency, kickstarted her election campaign with a bus yatra from Amagampalli village of Kasinayana block in YSR Kadapa district.
Addressing a rally before commencing the bus yatra, Sharmila said Andhra Pradesh would witness rapid development and a peaceful atmosphere only if Jagan was defeated in the coming elections. “He is encouraging murder politics in the state. He is misusing his power to shield those who were involved in the murder of my uncle YS Vivekananda Reddy,” she alleged.
Sharmila said she had decided to contest the elections from Kadapa parliamentary constituency only to prevent the killers of Vivekananda Reddy from entering Parliament again. “On one side, here is Sharmila who is fighting for justice for Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter; on the other, there is the YSRCP candidate who perpetrated the murder and wanted to buy voters with money power. It is for the people to decide,” she said.
The Congress president said when her father late YS Rajasekhar Reddy was the CM during the combined Andhra Pradesh, he had implemented several welfare schemes like fees reimbursement, crop loan waiver and Arogya Sri and undertaken several developmental programmes like Jalayagnam.
“All those schemes have been given a burial after bifurcation. While he was in the opposition, Jagan had boasted that he would bring special category status to Andhra Pradesh. But after coming to power, he had mortgaged the state to the Centre,” she said.
Sharmila said there were no new industries in the state in the last five years, there was no proper capital city and the Polavaram major irrigation project remained in a limbo. “Had YSR been alive, there would have been all round development in the state. The golden days of YSR could be brought back only if the Congress comes to power in the state again,” she said.
Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter N Sunitha, who took part in the rally, said her father had always wished to see Sharmila as a Lok Sabha member. “They got my father murdered only for political gains; and are contesting the elections again for the same political gains,” she alleged and called upon the people to vote for Sharmila in the coming elections.
Meanwhile, former Union minister Killi Krupa Rani and her husband Rammohan Rao, who had recently quit the YSRCP, joined the Congress in the presence of Sharmila before the commencement of bus yatra.
YSRCP leaders have not reacted to Sharmila’s comments yet.