Jolt for Telangana Congress: Telugu superstar Vijayashanti quits party to join BJP

Actor-turned-politician Vijayashanti quit Congress to join the Bharatiya Janata Party today, a day after meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Vijayashanti was an extremely successful Telugu film actor and started her political career in 1997 with the Bharatiya Janata Party. She quit the BJP and joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) during the Telangana statehood movement. In 2009 she was elected to the Lok Sabha from Medak after contesting on a TRS ticket. In 2014 she left the TRS to join the Congress party.

The return of Vijayashanti to BJP comes at a time when the party is preparing hard for the 2023 Telangana election. In the recently concluded Greater Hyderabad, civic body polls the BJP made major inroads with 48 seats from the previous 4. The single largest party TRS managed to gain only 55 seats against its previous tally of 99. The Congress could only manage to win 2 seats while Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM won 44 seats.

The declining fortunes of the Congress have helped the BJP emerge as the main opponent to the TRS.

Vijayashanti is the second high-profile Congress leader to join the BJP. In October, actor-turned-politician Khusbu Sundar had also quit Congress and joined the BJP in the presence of BJP General Secretary CT Ravi, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.

Also known as Amitabh Bacchan of South Cinema, Vijayashanti's entry into BJP is likely to give a major fillip to the party's prospects in Telangana.