YS Sharmila is the younger sister of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and the daughter of YS Rajasekhar Reddy, who was also a former CM of Andhra. She was named by the CBI as one of the witnesses in the murder of her uncle and former minister YS Vivekananda Reddy.
Sharmila is the founder and president of her own political party, YSR Telangana Party, which she floated in 2021 after vigorously campaigning for her brother during the 2019 Assembly elections with whom she parted ways.
In 2021, Sharmila launched a new political party on July 8, the birth date of her father, late Rajasekhara Reddy, in Telangana
On the evening of March 15, 2019, only a few weeks before the state’s Assembly elections, Vivekananda Reddy, one of the brothers of the late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, was discovered dead at his home in Pulivendula in Kadapa district.
In the murder trial of her uncle, former minister YS Vivekananda Reddy, YS Sharmila, who was named by the CBI as a witness, made a suggestion that the killing might have been committed for political reasons.
“He (Vivekananda Reddy) was not killed for any monetary or private reasons, yet it was a significant factor in his murder. According to me, it was political,” Sharmila was cited as stating in the CBI investigation.
Sharmila claimed that Vivekananda Reddy had visited her home two months prior to his death and persuaded her to run for the Kadapa Lok Sabha seat, which is now held by Avinash Reddy, despite her initial hesitation.
Avinash Reddy and his father YS Bhaskar Reddy have been accused in the second supplementary final report filed by the CBI in a local court on June 30.
The daughter of late YS Rajasekhar Reddy, Sharmila, expressed her belief that Avinash Reddy and his father may have considered the fact that Vivekananda Reddy was in their path and that “it may be a political murder or motive.”
Sharmila questioned whether Avinash Reddy and his father “might be the reason” for Vivekananda Reddy’s defeat in the 2017 MLC elections in Andhra Pradesh.
After appearing before the central agency on June 3, Avinash Reddy was detained by the CBI and freed on bail the same day after completing the necessary procedures and receiving anticipatory bail from the Telangana High Court.