The sister of YSRCP politician and chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, state Congress chairman YS Sharmila Reddy, claimed on Thursday in a political standoff in Andhra Pradesh that she stayed at the Congress office to avoid the government’s purported attempt to house-arrest her.
She is shown lying on a cot on the floor of the party’s Vijayawada office in a widely shared video. She had led Congress employees in the party’s Chalo Secretariat protest the day before.
The rally was organised by the Congress to address issues that it claims young people without jobs and students are facing.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday at Andhra Ratna Bhavan in Vijayawada, YS Sharmila claimed that in the previous five years, Jagan Mohan Reddy had completely failed to address significant concerns about youth, the unemployed, and students.
There were attempts to place her under home arrest, as she subsequently said on X.
Will you attempt to place us under house arrest if we call for a protest on behalf of the unemployed? In a democracy, don’t we have the right to protest? She posted on X, “Is it not shameful that, to avoid house arrest, I, as a woman, have been forced to elude the police and spend the night in the Congress Party office?”
On Thursday, she claimed that thousands of police officers were surrounding her.
“Thousands of police officers surrounded us. We are being held captive, and iron fences have been erected. They are going to arrest us if we support the unemployed. You are attempting to thwart us as dictators. Your behaviour is evidence of this. He went on, “YCP Sarkar ought to offer an apology to the jobless.
Manickam Tagore, a Lok Sabha MP, charged Jagan Mohan Reddy with possessing an attitude he described as authoritarian.
“Jagan’s police have been acting unjustly in suppressing democratic rights against advocates for the unemployed. We are standing up against his haughtiness and standing for democracy. Joining YS Sharmila and countless others in condemning this behaviour.” It’s time to recognise the freedom to peacefully protest and defend the core values of democracy.” On X, Manickam Tagore made a post.
On January 4, YS Sharmila became a member of Congress. She rose to become the state chief of the party in a matter of weeks.
Prior to it, on July 8, 2021, Sharmila had floated the YSR Telangana Party, which she was leading following an apparent falling out with her brother, YS Jagan Reddy.
Following her ascension to the Andhra Pradesh Congress chief position, she charged Reddy with putting development on the back burner.
“The atrocities against Dalits have sharply increased. The sand mafia and mining industry are in charge,” she informed Congress employees.
“Even Jagan, who raised a hue and cry over the special category status to AP, has not bothered to take up any movement against the Centre for denying the same,” she stated.