Launching a broadside against her brother Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Y.S. Sharmila said God was witness to the “atrocities” committed against her by the former.
Delivering a highly charged speech at the Congress party’s first election meeting on Monday, Ms. Sharmila accused Mr. Jagan of orchestrating a “character assassination campaign” against her and her husband.
Addressing the ‘Nyaya Sadhana Sabha’, Ms. Sharmila said that Mr. Jagan did not even have an iota of gratitude for her despite all that she had done for him in the past. “I had embarked on a 3,200-km padayatra for his party, and took up a vociferous campaign against the Telugu Desam Party. However, when I was agitating in Vijayawada, Jagan used the police force to detain me and injure me physically,” Ms. Sharmila alleged.
The APCC chief deplored that it was shameful on the part of Mr. Jagan to become a “pawn in the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which their father the late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was staunchly opposed to”.
“YSR abhorred the BJP for its communal and religious politics, which divided people,” Ms. Sharmila said.
The APCC chief said that the Chief Minister had let down the people of the State by failing to question the BJP-led government at the Centre on reneging on its promise of granting SCS and enough funds for the Polavaram project.
“Jagan has no moral right to ask for votes, as he reneged on his promise that he would seek votes only after prohibiting liquor in the State,” Ms. Sharmila said, alleging that there were serious lapses in the sale of liquor by the government, which was not allowing online payments. “In Andhra Pradesh, 25% more people are succumbing to cancer due to inferior quality of liquor,” she said.
Ms. Sharmila said that the YSRCP government had jeopardised the interests of farmers in the State. “What happened to Jagan’s promises of creating a ₹3,000 crore corpus fund for price stabilization, and a ₹4,000 crore fund for crop loss compensation?” Ms. Sharmila asked, adding that the farmers should be made aware of how they had been “betrayed” by the YSRCP regime.
The APCC chief further blamed both Mr. Jagan and Telugu Desam Party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu for not pursuing the issues of SCS and the State capital.
Referring to AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s announcement of ‘Indiramma Abhayam’ guarantee, Ms Sharmila said that it would be implemented in letter and spirit to eradicate poverty in Andhra Pradesh.
