YSR's daughter meets Gandhis, says KCR's countdown has begun

YS Sharmila, daughter of late YS Rajashekhara Reddy, met Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi here on Thursday amid indications that she may soon join or merge her nascent YSR Telangana Party with the Congress. Her meeting with the Gandhis came three days ahead of the death anniversary of her father who was the Congress chief minister of the united Andhra Pradesh.

Having fallen out with her brother Jagan Mohan Reddy purportedly over family matters, Sharmila floated the YSRTP and had been networking with the BJP for an alliance in Telangana until the saffron party recently made it known that it would continue to maintain its tactical relations with KCR and Jagan.

While her party has not demonstrated any electoral presence in AP or Telangana, the Congress nevertheless gets some talking points in her advances, more so given the bitter falling out the YSR family had with the Gandhis and Congress after Rajashekhara Reddy's untimely death. Sharmila had been conveying to many Congress leaders her readiness to align with the party against the TRS in the upcoming Telangana assembly polls and later against her brother's YSRCP in AP polls.


"I met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi today. A very constructive discussion was held. I will keep working for the welfare of the people. I want to tell you one thing, Telangana CM KCR's countdown has begun," she said after the meeting.

Sharmila's move towards the Congress also comes within days after TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, who too has been flirting with the BJP until he realised the saffron party was not in a hurry to dump Jagan Reddy, started speaking in support of caste-census as part of his repositioning ahead of the polls.