Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee President Y. S. Sharmila said on Friday that she swore on her children that she has no relations with actor Prabhas.
“Even today, I don’t know who Prabhas is,” she said while targeting her brother and former chief minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for running slanderous propaganda against her through his social media team.
Addressing a press conference, Sharmila asked Jagan why he had not taken action for five years if rumours about her relationship with Prabhas had spread from the house of actor and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLA Balakrishna.
She said Jagan Mohan Reddy recently claimed that rumours about her were spread from an IP address in Balakrishna’s house. “If you really love your sister and if you believed that the false propaganda was made from the IP address in Balakrishna’s house, what did you do as the Chief Minister for five years,” she asked.
“Didn’t your satan army on social media spread the lies that I had relations with Prabhas? When I filed the case that false propaganda was being run against me, I said I have so far not seen a person called Prabhas. Even today, I don’t know who Prabhas is,” she said.
“Then I swore on my children that I have no relations with him and I swear today that I have no relations with him,” she added.
Sharmila said though Jagan knew that she had no relations with Prabhas, he carried out propaganda through his ‘satan army’ during the last five years that she had no character and that she had relations with Prabhas.
“Is this the love you have for your sister? You should be ashamed,” she said.
The APCC president accused Jagan of using her video for his mileage. “You can use your sister’s video, file a case against the mother and include the father’s name in the charge sheet. You can do anything,” she remarked.
Sharmila was referring to the recent report that Jagan Mohan Reddy filed a case against their mother Vijayamma in a case relating to shares in a family firm. She also referred to the allegation that the YSR Congress Party president got the name of their father Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR) included in the charge sheet filed by the CBI against him in a disproportionate assets case.
Before the 2019 elections, Sharmila had filed a police complaint in Hyderabad against the social media wing of Telugu Desam Party alleging that they are spreading rumours of her having an illegal relationship with the Baahubali fame Prabhas.
Accompanied by her evangelist husband Anil Kumar and YSR Congress Party functionaries, she had met then Hyderabad City police commissioner Anjani Kumar to lodge a complaint.
She stated that she is a mother of two and has never spoken with the actor nor met him so far.
She had blamed then Chief Minister and TDP President N. Chandrababu Naidu for a tirade against her on social media.
“There are women in Naidu’s family too. We can also damage them by writing against their character. But we have value-based politics,” Sharmila had said.
Sharmila had then actively campaigned with her brother for the YSR Congress Party. Differences cropped up in the family after Jagan became the Chief Minister.
Sharmila recently alleged that Jagan was a changed man after coming to power and he tried to deprive her of her rightful share in their late father’s property.
She had floated the YSR Telangana Party in 2021 but early this year merged the party with Congress. She was subsequently appointed president of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee.