Sharmila Joins Congress, Merges Her YSRTP Into Party

The YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) was merged with the Congress in New Delhi today.

The founder-president of the party Y S Sharmila joined the Congress at around 10:55 am.

She was welcomed into the Congress by AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi.

Several other leaders of the YSRTP also joined the Congress along with Sharmila.

AICC leaders K C Venugopal and Manickam Tagore, APCC president Gidugu Rudraraju and Koppula Raju were present on the occasion.

After joining the Congress, Sharmila and her husband Anil Kumar met Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.

Speaking later, Sharmila said that her father Y S Rajasekhar Reddy must be feeling happy on her joining the Congress.

She said that she was happy to join the Congress, and would work as a loyalist of the party and work tirelessly no matter what responsibilities the party high command assigned to her. She also said that YSR had worked for the Congress throughout his life, and that it was YSR's dream to make Rahul Gandhi the Prime Minister of the country.

Sharmila said that the Congress was the largest secular party in the country, and had united all sections of the country. She added that the role of the Congress was crucial in keeping the country united. She said that she was pained as a Christian over the incidents in Manipur where hundreds of churches were burnt down. "Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra aimed to avoid such conflicts, and has had an impact on Karnataka and Telangana, with the Congress returning to power in both of them. I too did my best for the Congress' victory in Telangana," she said.

Sharmila's joining the Congress is a major development in politics in the two Telugu States. Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in AP in the next three to four months. It will be interesting then to see what post the Congress high command will give Sharmila. There is a lot of speculation going on in AP politics over whether she will be made the AP Congress president. There are reports that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has already agreed to that. The Congress high command will soon make an announcement in this regard.