Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is bound to face tough times in the run up to the next Assembly elections in 2023 as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is sure to form the next Government in Telangana, asserted film star Vijayashanti on Monday after taking the party membership in New Delhi in the presence of Union Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy, National OBC president K. Laxman, Telangana party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, national executive member N. Indrasena Reddy and others.
“BJP is the only party which can fight KCR and put an end to the corrupt family rule. He will be made answerable for his corruption. The BJP is the correct party to develop Telangana and it has already proved itself in the Dubbak bypoll and the GHMC elections,” she claimed in a chat with the assembled media. Ms. Vijayashanti is formally scheduled to join the party in the presence of national president J.P. Nadda later in the night.
In fact, it is a kind of homecoming for the film star-turned-politician as she had entered politics through BJP in 1998 and left the party in 2005 following differences over the formation of Telangana. “I had to quit to keep the separate State momentum alive because some parties were opposing it. I formed the 'Talli Telangana' Party but I was pressured to join the Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS) formed by KCR which came much later,” she maintained.
She and KCR were the two TRS MPs in Parliament and fought for the formation of the separate State. “KCR was not even around when the bill was passed in the Parliament and while he went back on his word after meeting Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi, I was unfairly suspended from the party since he did not want any other leader other than his family to be in the forefront,” she charged.
The BJP mounting the challenge to KCR came after the latter had ensured there was no Opposition and had created “problems” for many leaders, she said and was sure of playing a key role in the coming days in displacing the TRS regime. “TS needs Modi for development,” she added.
Earlier, Mr. Sanjay Kumar said Ms. Vijayshanti role will be crucial in the next phase of agitation for establishing a “democratic” Telangana by removing the current “dictatorial, family and Razakkar rule in Telangana.”
