Her party may have proved to be a non-starter and her residual cadres are in hibernation, but YSRTP founder-chief YS Sharmila never tires criticising KCR and the TRS. In fact, her criticism is more strident than the mainstream opposition parties like the Congress and the BJP. Despite all her criticism and harsh words, KCR hasn’t criticised her even once. The TRS has largely ignored her.

A strong section feel that Sharmila is acting as a secret benefactor for the TRS. They feel that she has been planted by KCR himself to take the wind from the sails of the opposition parties. It is because of this that KCR ignores her criticism. At the same time, KCR is very touchy about criticism by either Revanth Reddy or Bandi Sanjay. He even organises public meetings like the one in Janagam to counter them. But, he just ignored Sharmila.

In a latest attack on KCR, Sharmila said that he has not paid ex-gratia to any of the families of the farmers who ended their lives due to crop failure or financial distress. She said that despite High Court orders, the government has not issued ex-gratia to anyone. As expected, both KCR and the TRS leaders have largely ignored these attacks.

Political watchers say that both Sharmila and KCR have the same advisor. Poll wizard Prashant Kishor is working out political and electoral strategies for both the leaders. In fact, when PK visits Hyderabad, he stays in Lotus Pond and his team in Hyderabad operates from the Lotus Pond residence of the YS family. Interestingly, the same PK is also advising YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in AP.