Jagan Mohan Reddy, sister YS Sharmila fire fresh salvos at each other

The rivalry between YSR Congress Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and his sister Y S Sharmila reached a new high with both siblings indulging in personal attacks against each other during the ongoing electioneering in the state.
Ever since Sharmila took over as the president of Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) in January this year, she has been critical of Jagan’s government and its policies. She asserted that Jagan can in “no way claim to be a true political heir of her father – former chief minister late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, who had been the champion of the poor people by implementing his welfare agenda”.
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The tone and tenor of her attacks became more pungent after she was declared candidate for Kadapa parliamentary seat on April 2, even as she has been accusing Jagan of “shielding” the accused, particularly her cousin and sitting Kadpa MP Y S Avinash Reddy, in the murder of her uncle and former minister Y S Vivekananda Reddy five years ago.
Sharmila, at every public rally, has been raising the issue of Vivekananda’s murder and the alleged “role of Avinash Reddy in it with the support of Jagan”. Vivekananda’s daughter Narreddy Sunitha who has also joined Sharmila’s campaign, has been calling upon the people to “defeat Avinash Reddy in Kadapa and vote against the YSRCP all over the state”.
Jagan who has been maintaining restraint in attacking Sharmila directly has been slamming Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu for “firing at him from the shoulders of Sharmila to gain the electoral mileage”.
On Thursday, however, the YSRCP president launched a tirade against his sister at a rally in Pulivendula town in Kadapa, before filing his nomination papers for the assembly elections. He accused Sharmila of “becoming a puppet” in the hands of the TDP president, who was “YSR’s bitter enemy”.
“She wears a yellow saree (a colour represented by Naidu’s TDP), goes to the enemy’s home and takes blessings and joins hands with those who worked to erase the legacy of YSR. How can she claim to be YSR’s successor?” he asked. He said it was the people who would decide who the real successor of YSR but not “those who joined hands with others (Sharmila), trying to erase his name from the people’s minds”.
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Asking the people of Kadapa to defeat the Congress (represented by Sharmila) which had divided the state, Jagan pointed out that the “Congress had neglected inclusion of the special category status in the state reorganisation act”. He said voting for Congress was like voting for Chandrababu Naidu. “Who will benefit if our votes are divided? It will be Chandrababu Naidu and BJP,” Jagan said.
He asked the people to remember who worked to erase the reputation of the late YSR by filing cases and mentioning his name in the charge sheet, post his demise. “It is unfortunate that his two sisters (Sharmila and Sunita) were being used as part of their conspiracy,” he said.
Giving a clean chit to Avinash Reddy in Vivekananda murder case, the chief minister said he had given the ticket to the former because he believed that he “had done nothing wrong”. “Who would support someone accused of killing Viveka? Isn’t it true that Viveka had a second wife? Are the accusations against Avinash Reddy justified? They are attempting to ruin his life, but we stand by him,” Jagan said.
Referring to the allegations of Sharmila that he had “forgotten the family” after becoming the chief minister, Jagan said he “had not come to power to accumulate wealth or advance his family’s interests”. “God has bestowed upon me this position to serve the people’s well-being. I want my family members to understand the falsehood in the claims that I neglected them after taking office as CM,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sharmila took strong exception to her brother talking about the colour of her saree stating: “Jagan had no shame or decency in making such comments”. “I fail to understand why he has stooped to such a low,” she said.
Stating that Jagan “lacked the basic culture”, Sharmila sought to know “if the TDP had been given any patent on yellow colour”. “Jagan seems to have forgotten that the display of his news channel was yellow in colour, which was recommended by my father YSR who believed that the colour signified a good omen.”
She also refuted the allegations that the Congress had got YSR’s name included in the charge sheet in the alleged corruption cases. “…it was Jagan who, through his lawyer Sudhakar Reddy, included YSR’s name in the charge sheet by filing a petition so that he could get bail in the case,” she said.