'Return of the Lady Superstar': Actor-turned-politician Vijayashanthi returns to Congress fold in Telangana

With a single point agenda of achieving Telangana, the actor, popularly known as “Lady Superstar” and “Lady Amitabh”, floated a political party -- Talli Telangana -- in 2005.
AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge welcomes Vijayashanthi into the Congress fold on Friday
AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge welcomes Vijayashanthi into the Congress fold on Friday

HYDERABAD: Actor-turned-politician Vijayashanthi has rejoined Congress in the presence of AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge here on Friday. She left the Congress in December 2020 alleging that she was being “sidelined” by the party. 

With a single-point agenda of achieving Telangana, the actor, popularly known as “Lady Superstar” and “Lady Amitabh”, floated a political party -- Talli Telangana -- in 2005. Later, she merged it into TRS (now BRS) in 2009. She was elected to the Lok Sabha as a BRS candidate from the Medak segment in 2009.
Before the formation of Telangana State in 2014, she joined the Congress and went on to serve as the TPCC campaign committee chairperson. 

In December 2020, Vijayashanthi joined the BJP and played a key role in the party. However, she was disappointed over the party inducting the staunch Samaikyandra (united Andhra Pradesh) supporter, N Kiran Kumar Reddy, who was also the last chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh. She has been keeping a low profile for quite some time now, and she didn’t even make her resignation letter public. 

It remains to be seen what role she plays in the Assembly elections which are less than two weeks away.
Meanwhile, when the media requested a comment, Vijayashanthi said that she had returned to her ‘home’. She also promised to address the media on Saturday.

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