YSRTP to not contest Telangana elections, Sharmila announces unconditional support for Congress

HYDERABAD: The Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Telangana Party (YSRTP) president YS Sharmila announced on Friday that her party would not contest in the Telangana Assembly Elections 2023.

Sharmila said that as per her review, YSRTP would only be cutting into the Congress' votes which would end up favouring the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and she didn't want that to happen.

The YSRTP president added that while her party's decision to back out would not be forgiven by people, her party would completely back the Congress to defeat the BRS.

Sharmila had earlier announced on October 12 that her party would contest in the Telangana elections alone in 119 seats. However, she decided to make a sacrifice by withdrawing from the Telangana elections in order to help Congress win the State.

"There is a strong anti-KCR sentiment in Telangana, which has now peaked to the extent that the KCR Government could fall. If we split the anti-KCR vote, he will be re-elected as Chief Minister. Many experts have advised us to not divide the anti-KCR vote. Congress leaders also told us that they are confident of defeating KCR and asked us to not interference as it is unjust," YS Sharmila said at a press conference at Lotus Pond on Friday.

"People may question my decision to withdraw from the elections, despite the fact that our party had previously announced that it would contest all 119 constituencies on its own. However, as time passed, some decisions had to be made, and it was not a simple decision. I really wanted to be an MLA to serve the people of Palair, but we decided that sometimes sacrifice is more important than victory. So we decided to sacrifice to ensure Congress' victory," she concluded.