Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Y.S. Sharmila Reddy on February 23 said to take the party’s fight for justice to the people of the State to its logical end, it was forming an alliance with the Left Parties in the forthcoming elections.
Addressing a joint press conference after holding talks with delegations of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India- (Marxist) at Andhra Ratna Bhavan, she said people of the State were betrayed by the TDP and the YSR Congress party, as both the regional parties were vying with each other to appease the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.
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The Congress president said there was a need to fight tooth and nail the anti-people policies of the BJP at the Centre and the YCP in the State and that the Congress had joined hands with the Communist parties to defeat “such evil forces.”
Ms. Sharmila said she had extended invitation to the Left parties for the public meeting to be addressed by the AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge at Anantapur on February 26 and informed that key aspects like seat-sharing in the ensuing elections were being discussed and that “a clarity on the issue would emerge soon.”
Responding to the Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna returning to YCP, she said “he is someone very close to me and that I wish him happiness and prosperity wherever he is. As a sister, I can understand the tremendous pressure he is facing from the ruling party. He is a good person but in the wrong party,” she said.
CPI (M) State secretary V. Srinivasa Rao said the BJP, which did not have even 1 % vote share in the State, was indirectly ruling over people of Andhra Pradesh, thanks to the inefficiency of the TDP and YSRCP.
He alleged that the “Jagan-Babu-Pawan” trio was playing into the hands of the BJP and that it had compromised the interests of the people of Andhra Pradesh to the Centre. He accused the YSR Congress president Jagan Mohan Reddy of pushing Andhra Pradesh into a state of bankruptcy by resorting to indiscriminate borrowings without sparing a thought for people’s financial problems.
He also condemned the detainment of the Congress president Ms. Sharmila by the police while she was “fighting for the cause of unemployed youth in the State.”
Former APCC president and CWC member Gidugu Rudra Raju, senior Congress leader J.D. Seelam, CPI State committee members M. Nageswara Rao, Akkineni Vanaja and Jalli Wilson, CPI-(M) Central Committee member M.A. Gafoor and the party’s AP State committee member Y. Venkateswara Rao were present at the press conference.
