Former Telangana Member of Parliament (MP) and popular Telugu actor M Vijayashanti is likely to resign from the Congress party and return to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) soon, said a senior Congress leader who wished to remain anonymous.
The leader said the party had been receiving signals about Vijayashanti’s alleged plans to defect to the BJP for the past week. “There are signs that he could leave Congress. It is a regrettable development. She could get a call after seeing the result of the by-elections for the Dubbak assembly seat in Siddipet district, ”he said.
On Sunday, Vijayashanti tweeted that ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi in the state had weakened the Congress party and led to the growth of another national party, the BJP, which is posing a tough challenge to TRS in Telangana.
“Things in the Congress party could have been a little better if Manickam Tagore (the All India Congressional Committee in charge of Telangana) had come to the state a little earlier. Now, only time and the people of the state will decide the fate of Congress, ”he said.
Vijayashanti, who was the congressional star activist in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, was later appointed an advisor to the election campaign committee of the Telangana Pradesh Congressional Committee.
However, she has stayed away from party activities for quite some time and, on many occasions, expressed her dissatisfaction that the PCC did not invite her to party meetings.
Last week, Vijayashanti caused a stir in Congress by calling the BJP state chairman and MP Karimnagar Bandi Sanjay, who was arrested by police while on his way to Siddipet to protest against the seizure of cash from the residence of the BJP candidate M Raghunandan Rao in Dubbak for polls.
Later, the Union Minister of State for the Home, G Kishan Reddy, came to her residence in Hyderabad and had an hour-long meeting with her. This led to the conversation that sooner or later he might join the BJP.
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After her meeting with Kishan Reddy, the BJP leaders began to praise her. The state president of the BJP described Vijayashanti as a popular leader who had played a key role in the separate Telangana movement.
“It was a shame that she was completely outcast after the formation of Telangana. Although he actively campaigned for the Congress party, he does not deserve his fair share in the party, ”said Sanjay.
After her meetings with the BJP leaders, the Congressional leadership tried to pacify her. AICC Secretary Manickam Tagore and PCC Acting Chairman J Kusuma Kumar went to Vijayashanti’s residence and tried to convince her to stay in Congress.
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Vijayashanti began her political career with the BJP in 1998 and was appointed secretary of the BJP Mahila Morcha. When the Telangana movement reached its peak, she left the BJP and launched her own regional Talli Telangana party, but was unable to sustain it for long.
She merged her party with TRS in 2009 and was elected to Lok Sabha from the Medak parliamentary constituency. However, when she was sidelined in TRS during the formation of Telangana in 2014, she resigned from TRS and joined Congress.
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