Newly appointed Andhra Pradesh Congress president Y S Sharmila on Sunday targeted her brother and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy accusing him of neglecting development and pushing the state into huge debts.

Sharmila, who, in 2013, claimed herself to be “an arrow released from the bow of Jagananna” (brother Jagan) and took out a 3,100-km-long padayatra in the state to campaign for his YSR Congress party, alleged that Andhra Pradesh had plunged into an unprecedented crisis in the last five years.

“There is no money for taking up even to repair roads. The state government employees have not been getting salaries on time. Development has taken a backseat. There has been a steep increase in atrocities on Dalits. Mining and sand mafia are ruling the roost,” she alleged, while addressing the party workers and leaders at Vijayawada, after assuming charge as the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president.

Earlier, Sharmila came in a procession of the Congress party from Gannavaram airport to Vijayawada. She sat on a dharna at Enikepadu, where the police stopped her convoy stating that there was no permission to move further with so many vehicles. As the situation turned tense, the police finally allowed her convoy.

She also pulled up the previous Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government led by N Chandrababu Naidu for mortgaging the interests of the state with the Centre and ignoring the special category status to Andhra Pradesh, which she said, would have brought new industries to the state due to incentives from the Centre, resulting in massive employment opportunities to the youth.

“Even Jagan, who raised a hue and cry over the special category status to AP, has not bothered to take up any movement against the Centre for denying the same. Both Naidu and Jagan had betrayed the state. Surprisingly, both are extending support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre, which denied the special category status to the state,” she said.

She regretted that even after 10 years of the state bifurcation, Andhra Pradesh doesn’t have a proper capital city. “Naidu did not complete Amaravati, while Jagan has failed to construct even a single capital, though he announced three capitals for the state. Both the governments have failed to complete Polavaram project even after 10 years,” she added.

She alleged that while Naidu had raised ₹2 lakh crore loans during his regime, the outstanding loans shot up to more than ₹10 lakh crore during the Jagan government, including off-budget borrowings. Yet, there is no development in the state. Not a single new industry has come in the last few years,” she alleged.

Without directly reacting to Sharmila’s remarks, YSR Congress party general secretary V Vijay Sai Reddy said people won’t fall into the trap of the Congress leadership. “In 2004 and 2009, AP played a pivotal role in Congress forming a government at the Centre. However, when it was time to reciprocate, AP’s needs were overlooked by the Congress. The people of AP have learned a tough lesson, they will for once trust a snake but not the Congress,” he tweeted.

What went wrong between the siblings?

This is the first time that 51-year-old Sharmila has launched a tirade against her 53-year-old brother Jagan since the latter came to power in Andhra Pradesh in 2019. “In the coming days, she will raise her voice against her brother, as she desperately needs a political space in Andhra Pradesh, after having failed to make her presence felt in Telangana till a few months ago,” said political analyst Bhandaru Srinivasa Rao.

Sharmila has been nurturing political ambitions for more than a decade since her brother Jagan Mohan Reddy was sent to jail in May 2012 in an alleged case of disproportionate assets probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)

When the fledgling YSRCP was in deep crisis after Jagan’s arrest, Sharmila embarked on a marathon padayatra on October 18, 2012, and completed it on August 4, 2013, covering over 3,000 km across Andhra Pradesh.

The padayatra not only established the YSRCP in every nook and corner of the state but also generated a lot of sympathy for Jagan, fetching him huge mileage, though he could not come to power in 2014 elections due to state bifurcation issues.

But then, Sharmila did not get any place in the party, as Jagan did not allow his family members to be active in politics. Though Sharmila took active part in the campaign during the 2019 assembly elections, Jagan, who came to power, refused to give her any position in the party or the government.

“Apparently, Jagan did not want another power centre in the government or the party, because it would bring bad name to him and his government,” political analyst A Venkat Reddy said.

That led to a rift in the family. A YSRCP leader close to Jagan’s family said on condition of anonymity that there were disputes between Jagan and Sharmila over distribution of properties. “He flatly refused to give any monetary compensation to Sharmila, besides rejecting her request to nominate her to the Rajya Sabha,” he said.

Having no other choice, Sharmila decided to try her luck in Telangana politics by floating YSR Telangana Party on July 8, 2021, but there were absolutely no takers for her party. She finally wound it up after the Telangana assembly elections in December and on January 4, merged her party with the Congress.

“Now, she is hoping to breathe some life into the Congress which is battling for survival in Andhra Pradesh post-bifurcation. But she will have little relevance in AP politics and at the most, her outburst against Jagan will provide some fodder to pro-TDP forces to attack him,” Bhandaru Srinivasa Rao said.