Wearing her commitment to Telangana on her sleeve, quite literally, Y S Sharmila today addressed her much-talked-about Sankalpa Sabha in Khammam - draped in a yellow sari woven by the weavers of the state, she reached the venue surrounded by a massive convoy and was accorded a grand welcome by a close aide, Pitta Rami Reddy, and 5,000 supporters.
Accompanied by her mother, honorary president of the YSR Congress Party Y S Vijayamma, she first stopped at Pedda Thanda near Khammam town to pay floral tributes to a statue of her late father, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.
Those who were hoping to witness the party's grand launch today were left disappointed as Sharmila revealed that the new party would only be launched on YSR’s birth anniversary on July 8, and that the name of the party and its agenda would also be unveiled on the same day.
However, she did use the opportunity to launch a scathing attack on the TRS government, and accused it of having disappointed the unemployed youth, the farmers and various other sections of society. She claimed that the aspirations of the people who had hoped for a bright future in a new state were being "crushed" by the unjust regime at the helm.
"We will organise a three-day hunger strike in Hyderabad from April 15 to pressurise the TRS government into filling the 1.91 lakh vacant posts in the state immediately," the leader said, as she urged the unemployed youth not to take any extreme decisions out of despair.
She also reiterated her promise of
bringing back Rajanna Rajyam (the "golden era" of YSR's rule) in the state, and spoke at length about YSR's commitment to, and love for the people of the region.
Though the meeting was well-attended, it was conducted on a greatly scaled-down level as the organisers were forced to cancel their plans of hosting one lakh supporters after
several restrictions were placed on the meeting owing to the ongoing pandemic.
Meanwhile, Sharmila herself received some flak from veteran Congress leader V Hanumantha Rao who said that she was just the daughter of a former CM, and added that she did not have any achievements of her own.
Speaking to the media, he said that today's Sabha should not have been allowed in the midst of the pandemic, and asked Telangana DGP M Mahender Reddy how she was given permission for the same in the first place.
Rao then alleged that the TRS and the BJP were behind Sharmila's decision to launch a party in the state, and that they had encouraged her to do so to split the votes of the natives of AP residing in Telangana.