Kadapa witnessing bitter fight for claiming Dr YSR’s legacy

Visakhapatnam: Will Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president YS Sharmila upset the applecart of Kadapa MP YS Avinash Reddy who hopes to achieve a hattrick by winning the Kadapa Parliamentary seat in the May 13 elections? This question has become a hot topic in the national polity with the fight between brothers and sisters to claim the political legacy of former Chief Minister late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, popular as YSR, coming out in the open in the faction-ridden Rayalaseema region.

Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's sister Sharmila, who merged her Telangana-based party sometime ago and shifted to Andhra Pradesh in a bid to revive the Congress, which was totally decimated in 2014 and 2019 elections over public resentment post-bifurcation, has been accusing her brother of shielding Avinash, their cousin notwithstanding his alleged involvement in the murder of their uncle Dr YS Vivekananda Reddy, a former Minister. Dr YSR's brother Vivekananda was hacked to death with an axe in his house at Pulivendula in Kadapa district in March, 2019, a month before general elections. The CBI, which is probing the sensational murder, in the chargesheet mentioned Avinash as one of the key conspirators in the murder case.

Reacting to Jagan's allegations against her before filing nomination for Pulivendula Assembly segment, part of Rayalaseema, Sharmila wondered why Jagan is solidly behind Avinash knowing very well that he played a key role in the killing of Viveka, a two-time MP from Kadapa. Dr YSR won from Kadapa four times, Jagan, Viveka and Avinash each became MP from here twice. The parliamentary seat has remained a stronghold for YSR's family since 1989.

The fight took an interesting twist with Dr N Sunita, daughter of Viveka, throwing her weight behind Sharmila's crusade and repeatedly accusing Avinash of killing her father ruthlessly due to political differences.

Sharmila also poo-poohed the charge that she was acting as stooge in the hands of their bete noire TDP national president N Chandrababu Naidu, she said wearing a yellow sari did not suggest that she was dancing to the diktat of Naidu. "Yellow colour is not patented by Naidu. Even my father Dr YSR used to like yellow," she pointed out and wondered why Jagan mortgaged the interest of Andhra Pradesh before the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi by not insisting on granting of Special Category Status (SCS), establishment of Kadapa Steel Plant and early completion of Polavaram project.

Sharmia, who took up a State-wide padayatra and campaigned vigorously for her brother when he was jailed in the 'quid pro quo' case booked by CBI, said Jagan is now praising and comparing Minister Botcha Satyanarayana with his father knowing very well that he had made sweeping allegations against him when he was heading the State Congress.