Sonia Gandhi shares Sharmila’s pain on painting YSR with corruption charges

I felt the same pain when Rajiv Gandhi’s name was added to an FIR after his death, she told Sharmila

YSR Telangana Party chief Y.S. Sharmila pays floral tributes to former CM of Andhra Pradesh Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy on his death anniversary, in Hyderabad, on Saturday. | Photo Credit: PTI

The Gandhi family still has high regard for late Chief Minister Y.S. Rajashekhara Reddy and adding his name to an FIR related to a disproportionate assets case was painful, and relatable.

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi responded to the pain of YSRTP president Y.S. Sharmila in seeing her father’s name dragged into a case by equating her own pain when her husband, late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s name was also posthumously added to an FIR.

Ms.Sharmila revealed this to newsmen on Saturday after paying homage to her father on his death anniversary amid talks of YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP)’s impending merger with the Congress party. She said Ms. Gandhi had asked her how she could believe that the Gandhi family was behind adding YSR’s name to the FIR.

Elaborating on the discussions in the meeting held in New Delhi, Ms.Sharmila said she had raked up the issue of her father’s name being included in an FIR in a disproportionate assets case by the then Congress government and how pained she was. To that, Ms.Gandhi said she could relate to the pain as she too had to face such a situation.

On meeting Ms.Gandhi and her son, Rahul Gandhi after YSR’s family relations soured with them, she said people should forgive and move on rather than holding grudges. She said she had realised that the Gandhi family still has high regard for her father and that was why she could forget and move forward.

‘’Want KCR’s ouster’‘

Admitting that the merger of YSRTP with the Congress was discussed at length, Ms.Sharmila said the final decision would be taken after consulting those who had sailed with her all these days. Her sole intention is to dethrone the BRS government, which she termed as the “most corrupt” and said her meeting with Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi was primarily with the intention to root out the BRS government in Telangana. “During my padayatra of 3,000-odd days, I realised how people felt cheated by KCR and the problems faced by them,” she asserted.

She alleged that the Telangana government was surviving solely on liquor sales while the real issues were ignored and that “rampant corruption of KCR family has only destroyed the State”.