‘Lady Amitabh’ Vijayashanti makes another comeback: Congress’s backward class face for Telangana MLC polls

When Vijayashanti began her political career, it was with the BJP in the late 1990s. In 1996, she extended support to the J Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK, and was one of the party’s star campaigners.

In the BJP, she served as the general secretary of the party’s women wing and was even fielded by the BJP from the Kadapa Lok Sabha seat (in united Andhra Pradesh) in the 1999 Lok Sabha polls against Sonia Gandhi, who was fighting her first election. She withdrew her candidature after Sonia decided to contest the Bellary seat in neighbouring Karnataka.

By 2005, Vijayashanti had moved on, floating her Talli Telangana party and vowing to fight for Telangana’s statehood. With voters staying away, she merged her outfit with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now the Bharat Rashtra Samithi) and successfully contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Medak. “She was known to lead from the front and was a key figure in attracting women to the statehood movement,” a BRS leader said.

In 2011, she was among the TRS MLAs and MPs who resigned from their posts in support of a separate Telangana. However, her relations with BRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao soured later, and in 2013, she was suspended for “anti-party activities” following her public criticism of the party’s top leadership. “She felt she was sidelined due to the emergence of KCR’s children – K Kavitha and K T Rama Rao,” sources in the BRS said.

Vijayashanti subsequently switched to the Congress, and in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls stood from the Medak seat again (now in Telangana), and lost in the TRS wave at the time. She slipped into political oblivion subsequently even as her fellow statehood activists were honoured in the new state of Telangana, which was helmed by KCR.

After KCR advanced the next Assembly polls, from 2019 to 2018, Vijayashanti got politically active again. Then Congress president Rahul Gandhi appointed her as an advisor to the party’s election campaign committee. In 2019, she courted controversy during a public rally in Rangareddy after she compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a terrorist. “He is appearing like a terrorist. Instead of loving his people, he is scaring them… This is not a characteristic of a PM,” she said.

However, a year later, the BJP opened its arms to her and she returned to the party.

Come the 2023 Telangana Assembly polls, Vijayashanti made a shift again, rejoining the Congress. Pointing out that she joined the party in the presence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, a source said: “Vijayashanti has always enjoyed clout in Delhi.”

Party leaders said this explained the MLC ticket to her now, despite the fact that since the Congress came to power in Telangana, Vijayashanti has again been largely absent from public. The ticket to her also comes despite reports of her not having good relations with Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy. Not everyone in the Congress is thrilled about her nomination. “She has jumped from one party to another with ease and she is well past her prime in politics,” a Congress insider said.

But for the actor-turned-politician, the MLC nomination has come as a fresh lease of life. A day after her candidature was announced, Vijayashanti met Revanth Reddy. “The meeting marked the culmination of the political distance she has maintained with the CM,” a source said.

The MLC polls and what’s at stake

Along with Vijayashanti, the Congress has fielded Addanki Dayakar and Shankar Naik, all three seen as a bid to break away from the Reddy bent of the party. While Vijayashanti belongs to a Backward Class, Dayakar is a Dalit and Naik from a Scheduled Tribe community.

With 65 MLAs in the Assembly, all three Congress nominees are likely to be elected unopposed.

As a part of its alliance, the Congress has left one seat to the CPI, which has nominated Nellikanti Satyam.

The BRS, with 38 MLAs is set to win one seat and has nominated Dasoju Sravan to the Council.

Vijayashanti’s credentials as a Backward Class leader are also in line with the Congress’ pitch for the community and her MLC nomination comes close on the heels of the state Cabinet approving 42% reservation for the community in education, jobs and local bodies.

At the same time, the Congress government is under pressure from the BRS and BJP, who have accused it of “undercounting” the backward classes in the recent caste survey. “Getting Vijayashanti to be the backward class face in the Council is the right move as she is a familiar personality in Telangana,” a source said.