Visakhapatnam, June 18 (IANS) Congress’ Andhra Pradesh President Y.S. Sharmila on Wednesday alleged that the previous YSRCP government, headed by her brother Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, tapped the phones of its political opponents.
She claimed that phone tapping was a joint operation carried out by the then Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Chief Ministers to target her.
Talking to media persons here, Sharmila alleged that K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) and Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy tapped the phones of the leaders of opposition parties. She claimed that she, her husband and those close to them were the victims of phone tapping.
She said YSRCP leader Y. V. Subba Reddy had told her that their phones were being tapped and even had played an audio of her phone recording before her.
Sharmila demanded that Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu should get a thorough probe conducted into phone-tapping. She offered to cooperate in the investigation.
Alleging that KCR and Jagan Mohan Reddy had a close association, she said they tapped her phones to harm her political and economic interests.
Sharmila said she had kept quiet over phone-tapping as the then situation in both states was different. She alleged that both Jagan Mohan Reddy and KCR had indulged in misrule, and phone-tapping was nothing when compared to their misdeeds.
The Congress leader alleged that her brother conspired to stop her political and economic progress.
Sharmila had floated the YSR Telangana Party in Telangana in 2021. She merged the party with Congress in January last year and was appointed President of the Congress’s Andhra Pradesh unit.
In last year’s elections, she had campaigned aggressively against the ruling YSR Congress headed by her brother.
Sharmila made sensational allegations about phone-tapping at a time when the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Telangana police has intensified its probe into allegations that the previous government of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) had tapped phones of its political opponents and other individuals, including businessmen, journalists and celebrities.
–IANS
ms/vd