Vivekananda Reddy murdered for Kadapa Lok Sabha seat, claims YS Sharmila

APCC chief and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister, Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy's sister YS Sharmila on Wednesday said that their uncle YS Vivekananda Reddy popularly known as Viveka was murdered before 2019 polls for Kadapa Lok Sabha seat.

Their cousin YS Avinash Reddy had won the Kadapa Lok Sabha seat in 2014, 2019 and 2024 polls.

“Viveka's murder was committed for the Kadapa MP seat. Before he died, Viveka discussed this very matter with me for two hours. Viveka strongly believed that Avinash getting the Kadapa MP seat was not right. He even told Jagan about this. Yet Jagan gave the ticket to Avinash. Even so, Viveka respected Jagan's word and worked for Avinash Reddy's victory. But the second time, Viveka opposed Avinash getting the MP seat. Avinash thought that as long as Viveka was alive, he would always be an obstacle. Viveka was murdered for the MP seat. It is shameful to level murder accusations against Sunita while pretending to know nothing about all this. These accusations are Avinash's attempt to protect himself,” Sharmila told reporters in Visakhapatnam.

During the 2024 polls, Viveka's murder became a politically significant point, with Jagan's own sibling, Sharmila, and cousin Dr Sunitha, daughter of Vivekananda Reddy campaigning against Jagan in an attempt to get justice.

During the elections, she repeatedly said that the murderers of his father have been roaming freely, as Jagan had shielded them in the last few years when he was chief minister of the state.

TDP had also run a campaign, 'Who killed Babai', targeting Jagan. Just before the assembly elections inn 2024, stating that if Jagan retains power, there will be no hope for justice, Dr Sunitha Reddy openly urged the people of Andhra Pradesh not to vote for his brother's YSRCP.

Vivekananda Reddy was brutally murdered on the intervening night of March 14–15, 2019, in his own residence in YS family bastion Pulivendula in Kadapa district.

While the CBI has been probing the murder, the central agency has filed multiple chargesheets against eight accused on October 26, 2021, January 31, 2022, and June 30, 2023 and a final chargesheet has been filed recently.

Sharmila on Wednesday has also said that even to this day, Sunita's life is in danger yet she has been fighting courageously alone.

“She fights tirelessly for justice and for the truth behind the death. While Sunita fights, brother Jagan does not feel even the slightest responsibility. Jagan, ask your own conscience — how much of it is true. Is this the compassion you have for your sister and aunt? Why are you standing on the side of the accused instead of the victims? If YSR were alive, how deeply he would have been hurt. Because you did not deliver justice, Sunita met Chandrababu Naidu. Sunita had asked you to speed up the CBI investigation, hadn't she? If Jagan had stood on the side of justice in Sunita's matter, there would have been no need to meet Chandrababu Naidu,” added Sharmila.