YSRTP To Abstain From Telangana Assembly Elections, Support Congress

YSRTP founder-president Y S Sharmila today said that her party would stay away from contesting the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections, and that it had decided to extend its support to the Congress in the elections.

She said that the decision to not contest the Assembly elections had been taken for the benefit of the people of Telangana.

"There is opposition to the KCR government in Telangana. He is likely to become the CM again if the anti-KCR vote is divided. Many intellectuals approached me on the issue. After the Congress won in Karnataka, the graph of the party has gone up in Telangana. I have never seen the Congress as a separate party from mine. I have therefore decided to extend my party's support to the Congress in the upcoming elections," Sharmila said.

She said that the Congress leaders had asked her not to split the anti-incumbency vote. Claiming that she had founded her party primarily to end KCR's rule, she said that she decided to honour that request.

She apologised to the other YSRTP leaders and the party's activists for her decision.