Sharmila Denounces Brother, Cousin

Y S Sharmila's message to voters in Kadapa is brief: 'I am YSR's daughter, my brother Jagan has ruined Andhra, vote for me, vote for Congress.'
A Ganesh Nadar listens in.

The office of the Grand Old Party in Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, is grand, massive and does justice to a party that has ruled the country for half a century. It was almost empty as the cadre was out canvassing for votes on the last day of campaigning for the Lok Sabha phase four and the assembly elections to elect a new state government.

A man who is continuously on the office phone, says Yeduguri Sandinti Sharmila madam, popularly known as Y S Sharmila, is in Pulivendulu, former chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu's assembly constituency. A little later he tells me she is in Jamalamodugu.

Sharmila is wearing multiple hats in this election. As the Pradesh Congress Committee president in Andhra Pradesh, it is incumbent on her to ensure that the party reaps the benefits of anti-incumbency which swept Revanth Reddy into power in neighbouring Telangana last year.

And as the Congress contestant in the Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency, she has to deny her opponent and cousin, Avinash Reddy from her brother's YSR Congress, a second term as MP.

Mindful of her responsibilities, Sharmila has been keeping a frenetic pace on the campaign trail.

In Jamalamodugu the Congress office is on the first floor, behind a lodge. There is no board, flag, poster to show that it is a political party's office. In one room they have dumped Congress flags, scarves, caps, notices and banners.

Suresh, who is there alone, asks me to contact local journalists to find out where Sharmila madam is and gives me the numbers of four journalists. I call one of them who tells me that a little way away from the town a street corner meeting would take place in the next 15 minutes.

Men, women, youth and also a couple from the third gender wait in the extreme hot weather. A group have taken refuge inside an ATM booth where the AC is working and keeping them cool. Each time someone arrived to withdraw cash they troop out and go back in after the customer leaves.

An elderly gentleman shows me a token. It is a white sheet of paper with the rubber stamp of a local furniture mart with an initial scribbled on it. After the meeting he claims he has to exchange the token for Rs 400. On voting day they have been promised Rs 300 a vote. People attend all the party meetings, he says, as it is easy money in election season.

The propaganda van turned up first bellowing a song about Sharmila. It is a catchy tune. The cavalcade bearing "Sharmila madam" arrives five minutes later.

A man introduces her after which Sharmila joins him.

Sharmila herself speaks for five minutes. She tells the crowd 25 times that she is the daughter of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy who died in a helicopter crash in September 2009.

She grudgingly mentions that the current AP chief minister, Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, was his son who misused his father's name to win an election and after that ruin the state.

She attacks her cousin and opponent Avinash Reddy of the YSR Congress who won the elections in 2019. She says he is more interested in running his steel mills than looking after his constituency.

She assures the crowd that she will solve all their problems and take up their cause in Parliament. She ends her speech by showing them a dummy EVM. She says the EVM for the Lok Sabha election would be white in colour and feature her name at number four. She points it out and then presses the button which lights up.

She leaves the venue just as quickly as she came, with a "Bye Anna, Bye Amma".

The crowd then gets into mini vans which would take them home in the neighbouring villages.

I follow Sharmila's car for a while hoping to get a few words with her. The cavalcade halts at a railway crossing as a train passes. The railway sentinel says one more train has to pass before he opens the gate. Sharmila's security man tells him he is keeping a VIP waiting. The railway personnel obliges and opens the gate. We follow Sharmila out.

• INDIA VOTES, 2024