Kin for the win

The Andhra Pradesh assembly elections promise to be a family affair centred on the NTR and the YSR clans 

- RAHUL DEVULAPALLI

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS of his uncle—Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy— Raja Reddy is also getting married at 24, next month. Before starting the preparations for the wedding, his mother, Y.S. Sharmila, went to the family’s farmhouse in Idupulapaya, near Kadapa, to pray at YSR ghat— her father, former chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, was buried there. The YSR Telangana Party president flew from Hyderabad in a special aircraft owned by BJP Rajya Sabha member C.M. Ramesh, who is known to be close to Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu. Sharmila paid respects to her father, a staunch Congressman, and then took the same flight to Vijayawada to invite her brother and YSR Congress president Jagan to the wedding.

This is a brief summary of how politics and families are intertwined in Andhra Pradesh, where party lines have blurred and the power dynamics of two clans—YSR and N.T. Rama Rao—have taken over ahead of assembly elections, due in May.

With Sharmila now merging her party with the Congress, all the important political outfits in the state are under the control of the two families. The TDP and the YSR Congress, the major regional parties, are headed by NTR’s son-in-law Naidu and YSR’s son Jagan, respectively. The two national parties, too, are tied to the families. The BJP’s state president is NTR’s daughter Daggubati Purandeswari and the Congress’s new hope is Sharmila.