Hyderabad:

Amid speculation that she would merge her party YSRTP with the Congress, Y S Sharmila, the sister of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, on Thursday met top AICC leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the national capital.

Speculation about Ms Sharmila growing closer to the Congress has been doing the rounds for quite some time after she met Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar in Bengaluru in May to congratulate him on the victory of the party in the neighbouring state.

“Met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Constructive discussions took place. The daughter of Y S Rajasekhar Reddy would relentlessly work towards benefiting Telangana people. I can say one thing, the countdown for KCR began (hinting at Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s defeat in the upcoming Assembly polls),” she told reporters after the meeting in New Delhi without elaborating further.

When contacted, YSR Telangana Congress Party’s spokesperson Konda Raghava Reddy said none of the leaders or cadre of YSRTP are aware of her Delhi trip and meeting with the Gandhi family.

Sharmila had earlier categorically said that she would contest from Palair Assembly constituency in poll-bound Telangana.

She vigorously campaigned for her sibling Jagan Mohan Reddy during the 2019 Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh and later floated her own party YSRTP in Telangana.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)