BJP, BRS have secret understanding: Vijayashanthi

Hyderabad: Actor politician Vijayashanthi said on Saturday alleged that there is secret understanding between BJP and BRS.

She quit the BJP and joined the Congress as the saffron party failed to keep its promise to take action against Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s corruption.

A day after formally joining the Congress, she told media persons that the BJP failed to take action against KCR despite promising the same. Vijayashanthi said she had joined BJP after the party had promise to take action against KCR

She alleged that there is secret understanding between BJP and BRS. “They publicly say something but actually they are together. It’s BJP workers, Telangana activists like us and people who are being fooled,” she said.

The former MP said that the Congress is fighting against KCR’s corruption and hoped that it would recover the money looted and distribute the same among people.

She also claimed that the removal of Bandi Sanjay as the state BJP president resulted in the party’s graph falling drastically. She said she had told the BJP high command that removing him four months before elections will be disastrous for the party.

“They said they will not remove him but all of a sudden he was sacked and BJP’s graph fell drastically,” she said.

She blamed former minister and BJP MLA Eatala Rajender for the removal of Bandi Sanjay. Calling him a seed sown by KCR, she said he played some tricks, created division in the party and put pressure on high command to get Bandi Sanjay replaced.

Vijayashanthi said BJP destroyed itself in Telangana. She asked what happened to the case against Rajender for encroaching assigned lands.

It was in December 2020 that Vijayashanthi had returned to BJP after 15 years.

Popular as ‘Lady Amitabh’ for her action roles in Telugu films, Vijayashanthi had joined the BJP in 1997 and served as general secretary of the party’s women’s wing.

She quit the BJP in 2005 to float a separate outfit, Talli Telangana, to fight for separate statehood for Telangana.

She later merged Talli Telangana with TRS (now BRS) and was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Medak constituency in 2009.

In August 2013, a few months before the formation of Telangana state, TRS suspended Vijayashanthi for anti-party activities.

She later joined the Congress party and unsuccessfully contested from the Medak Assembly constituency in the 2014 polls.

After lying low for four years, Vijayashanthi again became active in Congress in 2017 and was named its star campaigner for the party in 2018 Assembly polls. After the party’s debacle, she was not active in the party and returned to BJP in 2020.