It’s been 10 years since the Congress figured in the headlines of Andhra Pradesh, the rump state that remains after the carving out of Telangana. Blamed for that botched vivisection, it was shut out by voters in two elections with all its candidates losing deposits. Reduced to a footnote, the party reconciled with its oblivion and left the field entirely to the TDP and YSR Congress Party. But in the past two weeks, there has been talk of a revival of the party, a return to the electoral game and even making a difference to the verdict. The single event that has made the Congress so giddy is the entry of YS Sharmila Reddy, a daughter of the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy and sister of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, the current chief minister.
As a recipe for a stirring comeback, this makes for rather thin soup. To start with, there is no great political vacuum in AP for the Congress to fill. The YSR Congress Party and the Telugu Desam Party have the game pretty much unto themselves, with the BJP playing the supporting role. Ms Reddy is a woman of no great political experience and no proven electoral strength. In fact, her CV is mixed up. Her family hails from Rayalaseema, and she operates an inconsequential little party in Telangana, which she now plans to merge with the Congress and play a lead role in the politics of Andhra Pradesh. The fact that the current euphoria in the Congress is based on such slim pickings is entirely in character for the party. In Andhra Pradesh, it remains a headless chicken, made frantic now by a fanciful idea.
Yet, the spinmeisters of the Congress are chomping at the bit. Recruiting Sharmila Reddy is apparently a master stratagem that will pull off two major political coups, not one, against CM Jagan Mohan Reddy, who 15 years ago walked out of the Congress, taking with him the entire cadre of the party, its solid vote bank and the legacy of his late father. For one, Ms Reddy is being hyped to claim back that electorally crucial legacy for the Congress and persuade his old colleagues to return to the fold. Her main task is to attract the Christian vote, which is of crucial importance in at least 45 constituencies in the state.
Political parties can have their pipe dreams but there is a supreme irony in the Congress arriving at this pass. Fifteen years ago, the point of dispute between the high command, a.k.a Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, and Jagan Mohan Reddy had been that there was anything called a Rajasekhara Reddy legacy. Refusing to accommodate the then young MP’s ambitions, they drove him out of the party and preferred to entrust the then undivided state to lame-duck regimes that ruled listlessly for a whole term and became too feeble to fend off the separate Telangana agitation. Against all local advice, the party divided the state that had been its main prop in Parliament and was quickly buried on both sides of the divide. It was a misjudgement that has had great implications for the party and the nation alike, especially the South whose influence on Parliament has diminished as a result.
It is ironic indeed that the Congress is now asking to be admitted back to a state it sundered; and that Sonia Gandhi should receive Sharmila Reddy in the same book-lined study from which she banished Jagan Mohan Reddy 15 years ago.