Andhra Pradesh, Congress president, YS Sharmila is one of the most aggressive and dynamic politicians in South India. She might not have the public mandate on her side but she is very vocal and has a strong mindset.
Now the Congress party is currently on resurgent wave in South India. The Congress party formed an alliance with Thalapathy Vijay’s TVK in Tamil Nadu and a part of the government while they are already in power in Karnataka.
The party has a strong leadership in Telangana in the form of Revanth Reddy, and this state remains to be one of the powerhouses for Congress centrally. The recent inception to power in Kerala will make the party further stronger.
The only South Indian state that is out of reach for Congress party is Andhra Pradesh. But the positive thing is that Sharmila, who is one of the vocally active letter is still trying her best. She is in contention to get the Rajya Sabha berth from the Congress party as well.
While there might not be too many objections in terms of financial resources for Sharmila in Andhra Pradesh, the real challenge is to gain back the traditional congress vote bank which matters.
Majority of Congress vote bank has shifted to Jagan and Sharmila now faces the challenge of bringing it back to whatever capacity she can. If she can somehow tweak around 5% vote in Andhra Pradesh, then it could pretty much mean game over YS Jagan.
In the case of an individual election, Jagan might be the favourite, but as long as TDP, JSP and BJP are together, and if Congress can somehow congregate more than 5% votes, the recipe for Jagan’s downfall is right here.
It all comes down to the dedication and aggression shown by Sharmila at the ground level and Jagan will be hoping this wouldn’t happen at a problematic level against him.
