Daughter's in, Hand's down

The Congress stands to lose with Y.S. Sharmila’s foray into Telangana politics

- RAHUL DEVULAPALLI

IN JANUARY, THE TELANGANA Jana Samithi (TJS) approached the police for permission to hold a protest at Dharna Chowk, one of the oldest venues for public agitations in Hyderabad. But the three-year-old party’s request was rejected. Until recently, TJS was the youngest political outfit in Telangana, launched with popular faces and some hype.

“We wanted to hold a two-day protest at Dharna Chowk,” said M. Kodandaram. “When permission was denied, we requested the police to let us to protest for a day. That, too, was rejected.” The TJS had planned a protest on five issues, including the urgent need to provide jobs to the youth. A former Osmania University professor, Kodandaram had led the Telangana Joint Action Committee which fought for the formation of the new state; he later declared war on the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and co-founded TJS.

Where the TJS failed, Y.S. Sharmila—daughter of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, former chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh; sister of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy—succeeded and how. In April, she and her supporters held a one-day protest at Dharna Chowk and raised the same issue that the TJS was raising—youth employment. A few days before that, she had held a huge public meeting in Khammam, south Telangana. She flayed the K. Chandrashekar Rao government on a variety of issues ranging from education and health care to agriculture and housing. At Khammam, she dropped a bombshell: “We are going to start a party. It will bring back the YSR era.”