There is a widespread talk across the Telugu states that Y S Sharmila is merging her YSRTP with the Congress. She had met Karnataka Congress leader D K Shiva Kumar twice and had greeted Rahul Gandhi on his birthday two weeks ago.

Sharmila’s family had distanced from the Congress, after her brother and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy floated the YSR Congress and was subsequently arrested in CBI cases in 2010.

Thirteen years later, Sharmila is said to be moving close to the Congress and the Gandhi family. She had already distanced from her brother, Jagan Mohan Reddy. Her mother Y S Vijayamma too had distanced from son and is staying with Sharmila.

Sources say that Karnataka deputy chief minister Shivakumar, who was a close friend of late Dr Rajasekhar Reddy, had successfully convinced Sharmila to merge her party with the Congress. The Congress leaders have reportedly offered Rajya Sabha seat to Sharmila from Karnataka and would be given some important post in the Telangana Congress as well.

It is said that Sharmila had agreed to the offer and cleared the route. But she is said to be taking time to gauge the mood of the people, if she joins hands with the Congress, the party that had victimised her family.

She is also said to be studying and gathering opinion from the people in Telangana, particularly Dr Rajasekhar Reddy’s followers whether they would accept her joining the Congress or reject. Once she completes this assessment, it is said that the Congress would formally admit her into the party.

Sharmila had floated the YSRTP in 2021 and had walked for 3,850 kilometres in Telangana, promising Rajanna Rajyam. As the slogan did not win hearts of the people in Telangana, she stopped talking about her father’s regime and had been targeting the BRS leadership and the government.