Congress to have poll pact with Communists, announces APCC chief YS Sharmila

AMARAVATHI: Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president YS Sharmila has said that the Congress party will enter into an electoral alliance with Communist parties and jointly fight the upcoming elections.

Announcing this after meeting leaders of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India-Marxists (CPM), Sharmila said that the YSR Congress Party and the Telugu Desam Party were “slaves of the Bharatiya Janata Party”. The two parties became stooges to the BJP and were trampling the rights of Andhra Pradesh under their feet.

The Congress would fight for the rights of the State and tied up with the Communists in this journey. “We have discussed the issues we can commonly fight together. It will be difficult to dethrone the mountainous leaders of the YSRCP and the TDP. I have invited the Communist leaders to the public meeting to be addressed by Congress president Mallikarjuna Kharge on February 26 in Anatapur. Discussions are on among three parties on seat-sharing and a clear picture would emerge soon,” she disclosed.

Had the Congress come to power in 2014, Andhra Pradesh would have got special category status (SCS) a decade ago. Chandrababu Naidu and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy failed in securing the special category status to the State. The Congress Government would have completed the Polavaram project.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a quiet goby to the promise on the SCS in Tirupati.

Referring to Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, she said that he’s close to her and wished that he should by happy wherever he was. There were severe pressures on him. “I can understand them like his sister. He is a good man in a wrong place,” she said.

State secretary of CPM Srinivasa Rao said that the BJP had meted out gross injustice to Andhra Pradesh. “Our fight is on the BJP, YSRCP and the TDP. These alliances have done injustice to the State.” The BJP which did not have even a single percent vote share was controlling the politics in the State.

Chandrababu Naidu was now prostrating before the BJP. Even the BJP Chief Ministers would not make so many rounds to Delhi as Naidu did. He could not get even a single promise fulfilled. There were no funds for the State Capital. “We will take the help of the Congress. We will contest together and defeat these evil forces. We will wean away those who were protecting the BJP,” he said.

CPI State secretary K Ramakrishna said that if the BJP came to power, it would pursue communal agenda and change the Constitution authored by Dr B R Ambedkar . The country was in danger. Jagan, Naidu and Pawan Kalyan surrendered to the BJP. They sacrificed the interest of Telugu people with the BJP. Jagan had spoiled the State in his five-year rule and converted people into beggars and made the State bankrupt. It’s unjust to arrest the APCC president.