YSRTP President YS Sharmila is ready to merge her party with the Congress if the Congress gives her the TPCC President’s post, it is learnt.
YSRTP sources said the Congress high command approached Sharmila and asked her to merge her party with the Congress to take on the BRS.
The Congress high command explained to her that she should merge her party with the Congress or else it would not be possible to defeat the BRS and the BJP in the next election.
Sharmila told the Congress high command that she will merge her party with the Congress if she is given the PCC chief’s post.
It is learnt that she will go for an alliance with the Congress if it offers a good number of seats to her party.
It is also learnt that if things do not work out with the Congress, she may go induct Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and Jupally Krishna Rao and concentrate on Khammam and Mahbubnagar.
If an alliance materialises with the Congress, then she may ask for all the seats in Khammam and most of the seats in Mahbubnagar, it is learnt.
Sharmila realised that she has to do something to defeat the BRS or else not only she but all opposition parties will have to down their shutters.
The Congress thinks that Sharmila’s entry will help to attract the lost Congress vote bank – SCs, STs and minorities – in Telangana.
Sharmila’s only hesitation is that her family had distanced themselves from the Congress after her father YSR’s death in a copter crash due to doubts that the Congress had a hand in that.
She may patch up with the Congress in view of the conditions in Telangana and defeat the BRS.
Sharmila may take a middle path by contesting elections in alliance with the Congress by inducting Ponguleti and Jupally, who keep extending the date for joining other parties.