YSRC fields its star campaigner Sharmila
HYDERABAD: Rattled by Chandrababu Naidu's ongoing padayatra, the YSR Congress Party has all but decided to field its most effective campaign star, Sharmila, in a rival walkathon to draw eyeballs away from the TDP president.
The 34-year-old sister of YSRC president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has proved herself as a crowdpuller in the byelection campaign back in July and as a telegenic defender of her brother after he was arrested in the illegal wealth case against him.
A joint meeting of the YSRC's central governing and executive councils on Wednesday weighed the option of having Jagan's mother and the party's honorary president Y S Vijayalakshmi undertake the padayatra but veered round to the view that a younger campaigner would be more effective against Naidu while saving the matriarch for the sympathy sweepstakes in the 2014 election.
The meeting deferred making an official announcement of Sharmila's walk as they wanted to discuss it in the party's political affairs committee on Thursday and take a final clearance from Jagan. The date, route and name of the padayatra are likely to be officially announced on Thursday.
'One member of the YSR family will undertake the padayatra across all three regions of the state,' YSRC spokesperson Konathala Ramakrishna said. Party insiders, however, said it would be Sharmila. The padayatra is likely to begin from the family estate of Idupulapaya in Kadapa district on October 17.
The younger daughter of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy projects confidence in the presence of TV cameras and has an upfront camera style while Vijayamma tends to fumble for words. While the YSRC meeting was certain that Sharmila would be effective against Naidu, another factor the party council weighed was whether she might prove too popular and draw the limelight away from Jagan Mohan Reddy himself, as Priyanka Gandhi has often done from Rahul Gandhi.
There was also some discussion whether Sharmila would be able to stand the rigours of walking the whole hinterland of the state if she were to match Naidu's 117-day padayatra. There were suggestions at the meeting that she do a bus tour but it was decided that only a walk would be the real thing.
News Posted: 11 October, 2012
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