10 Months Of Sharmila: Banam Hitting Only Jagan!

It has been roughly 10 months since YS Sharmila took charge as the president of Andhra Pradesh Congress. This was a significant political move from the YS family lady who is out on a mission to destabilize his brother YS Jagan, with whom she evidently has property disputes. Setting aside the personal side of things, let us have a look at Sharmila’s impact on the Congress party, as a whole.

Sharmila’s first line of duty after taking charge of APCC was to get in touch with the traditional Congress cadres who walked with Jagan after he launched YCP. Congress’s game plan behind Sharmila’s appointment was to bring back their loyal vote bank and split the YS loyalist bank which almost entirely rallied with Jagan.

In accordance, Sharmila got in touch with former Congress veterans including Konathala Ramakrishna and others. But they turned down her proposal at that point in time. Sensationally, YCP’s Alla Ramakrishna Reddy joined Sharmila’s side and took the Congress oath. But he quickly took a u-turn and got back with Jagan which took the wind out of Sharmila and Congress’s sails.

It is true that senior most leaders like Raghuveera Reddy and Tulasi Reddy turned active, but conventionally vocal leaders like Sailajanadh who were with Congres through thick and thin turned silent after Sharmila’s entry.

Then came the big election in 2024, where Sharmila led Congress’s campaign and the party contested all 175 assembly seats. While it was expected that Congress could aim at 5% vote share by catering to the party loyalists and tapping into YS loyalists, the party got confined to 1.7%. Sharmila herself ended up losing deposits from the Kadapa parliament.

While Sharmila might take personal pleasure from Jagan’s historic downfall in this year’s election, when it comes to delivering results for Congress, things weren’t looking positive. Sharmila’s one-point agenda of bringing down her brother and fighting for her Babai Viveka’s murder wasn’t accepted at large. While Sharmila was successful in bringing down Jagan, she failed in improving Congress’s condition.