TRS leader and Medak MP Vijayashanti’s absence from the Telangana Samara Bheri at Suryapet in Nalgonda district on Sunday has set off speculation that a cold war is brewing between her and party chief K Chandrasekhara Rao.
According to sources, Vijayashanti is upset that Rao is nursing a wish to contest from the Medak Lok Sabha constituency, which she is representing now, in 2014. At present, he is representing Mahbubnagar in the Lok Sabha. The actress-turned politician, whom Rao calls his sister, is being sidelined in the party programmes which indicates that the party chief is treating her as persona non-grata. At a meeting at Parigi in Rangareddy district in which the TRS chief took part, Vijayashanthi was conspicuous by her absence.
According to sources, Vijayashanti is also unhappy over TNGO former president K Swami Goud being declared as the party’s candidate from the Karimnagar Graduates Constituency for the MLC seat. She is also not happy either with the TRS chief’s efforts to lure Congress MPs into the party.
Vijayashanti is known in the TRS as a strong supporter of the BJP-led NDA at the national level. She welcomed LK Advani when his rathayatra entered her Medak constituency in the past. Several times in the past she openly cautioned the TRS chief against the unending negotiations with the Congress on Telangana. When Rao camped in Delhi she issued a statement that she did not understand why the TRS still reposed faith in the Congress in spite of so many bitter experiences. She thinks that only a bitter attack on it can bring round the Congress.
Party leaders do not rule out the possibility of KCR contesting from Medak . In case he does, it will be nothing but showing her the door, they say. The party’s executive committee will meet at Telangana Bhavan here on November 30 where one could get an idea as to at what stage the relations are between the two leaders. “Vijayashanti is committed to fighting for the Telangana cause and will follow in the footsteps of her leader. They do not have differences on this score,’’ one of Vijayashanti’s close aides told Express, but would not say what factors have strained the relations between the two.