Hyderabad: Terming Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao “a better actor” than herself, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijayashanti, a former Telugu film star, on Thursday said that the innocent people of Telangana endured KCR till now, but not any more.
“KCR joined the Telangana (separate state) movement saying that he was not given a ministerial berth in Andhra Pradesh. He is a better actor than I am,” said the Telugu actor-turned-politician who recently joined the BJP for a second time after quitting the Congress.
During a press conference, she added she was involved with the issue since 1998. “At that time there was no KCR. I was in the BJP and fought for Telangana. But KCR cheated Congress leader Sonia Gandhi saying that if Telangana was made a separate state, his party would merge with the Congress. The people of Telangana are innocent and that is why they have endured KCR till now. But now they are not in a position to endure his government anymore,” she said, adding the BJP was the correct choice for the people.
Vijayshanti started her political career with the BJP in 1997, but she quit the party and joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi during its fight for a separate state. She was also elected to the Lok Sabha in 2009. Later, she joined the Congress in 2014, just before Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated and Telangana was born. Her return to the BJP comes at a time the party is prepping for an aggressive campaign for the 2023 Telangana election.
