Rahul Gandhi as PM was my father YSR’s dream, says Andhra Pradesh Congress President YS Sharmila
YS Sharmila on Monday vowed to realise her father, the late YS Rajasekhar Reddy’s dream of seeing Congress MP Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister of India.
Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president YS Sharmila on Monday vowed to realise her father, the late YS Rajasekhar Reddy’s dream of seeing Congress MP Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister of India.

“My father had an ambition of seeing Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister of the country. He could not realise his dream due to his untimely death. I shall strive to fulfil his ambition,” Sharmila said, while addressing a commemorative meeting on the occasion of 75th birth anniversary of her father at a convention centre at Mangalagiri in Guntur district.
She said that her father had been a “hardcore loyalist of the Congress and was committed to its ideology”. “Hstrongly believed that the country can witness comprehensive development only under Congress rule,” Sharmila said.
Also Read | Rahul Gandhi meets displaced Manipur residents in Assam
Rajasekhar Reddy, popularly known as YSR, served as the two-time chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, before he died in a helicopter crash in 2009.
It was the first meeting organised by the Congress party in Andhra Pradesh, where it has yet to win a single seat in the state assembly and Lok Sabha elections post-bifurcation in 2014.
“YSR was a strong critic of the Bharatiya Janata Party which he used to say was doing politics in the name of religion. Unfortunately, the person who is now claiming to carry the legacy of YSR, supported the BJP in the last five years,” Sharmila said, in an indirect reference to her brother and YSR Congress Party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Also Read | Rahul Gandhi met train drivers brought from ‘outside’? Unions counter Railways
Sharmila did not invite her brother to the event commemorating YSR’s 75th birth anniversary. She did not see eye to eye with him while paying homage to her father’s samadhi at Idupulapaya in Kadapa district on Monday morning.
She recalled how YSR had taken up Jalayagnam, a mission to provide irrigation to several acres of parched lands. “It was his dream project and though his welfare schemes had brought him good name, he was more interested in completing the irrigation projects,” she said.
Former Rajya Sabha member KVP Ramachandra Rao, who was a close friend of YSR, right from his college days, said the former chief minister had given political life to many leaders. “If he believed any person, he would stand by them by all means. He entrusted key responsibilities to several leaders like P Janardhan Reddy and Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga, despite objections from within the party,” he said.
Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy, who attended the function, expressed confidence that Sharmila would become the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh in the next elections, as she was the true political heir of YSR.
Calling upon the people of Andhra to reject the leaders who chant the name of YSR for their selfish political gains, Reddy requested them to bless Sharmila, who has the capacity to carry forward the programmes of YSR. He said that Telangana unit of Congress would stand by her.
