The Lady Superstar in her first press conference having joined the BJP made sensational comments. Though it isn’t clear how much excitement there was in the BJP over Vijayashanti making a comeback, reporters who attended the press meeting were shocked. Having begun her conversation saying that she had fought for the Telangana statehood prior to KCR, she concluded her meeting by strongly criticizing all political parties, except the BJP. It can be understood that the 54-yr old needs media attention, and hence the theatrics. However, criticizing other parties, ignoring the fact that she had switched sides from the very political parties, has raised several eyebrows.
Even before KCR?
Addressing her press conference after joining the BJP and concluding her Delhi tour, Vijayashanti spoke about having initiated a movement demanding Telangana state in 1998, way before KCR. She even went onto say that the anti-Telangana stance among friendly parties of the NDA (indirectly referring to TDP) led her to drop out. It was in 2005 that Vijayashanti had left the Bharatiya Janata Party when the Congress was ruling the Centre and in the State. While the BJP and TDP which went for early elections in 2004 had lost. Which means Vijayashanti was in the BJP for almost a year (2004 May to 2005 May) during the UPA-1 rule. So, it was the Congress which had to decide about Telangana, instead of the TDP as blamed by Vijayashanti.
What exactly happened?
In undivided AP during the 2004 elections, both the TDP and BJP had formed a coalition. It was rumoured that Vijayashanti who already asked the BJP for a ticket, had to face disappointment from the latter, as it was against the rules specified by the alliance. However, in that election both the TDP-BJP coalition lost and the TRS-Congress alliance won. Not only that, in the 2004 election campaign held by the Congress, Sonia Gandhi addressing a public meeting at Karimnagar had vowed to grant the statehood to Telangana. This led to major changes in the political calculations.
When UPA-1 assumed power, it appointed a cabinet sub-committee headed by Pranab Mukherjee in March 2005. This committee announced to submit a detailed report within 8 weeks regarding the possibility of Telangana formation. It was exactly during this time in May 2005 that Vijayashanti had called it quits from the BJP and founded the Talli Telangana Party. But by the same time, KCR’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi was well-received among the public. Also, Devender Goud’s Nava Telangana Praja Party and Aelay Narendra’s Telangana Sadhana Samithi were already present. On the other hand, none of the big leaders expressed their interest to join the Talli Telangana Party and there are various reasons for that. Later, as the TRS grew stronger Vijayashanti’s Talli Telangana Party and Aelay Narendra’s Telangana Sadhana Samithi merged with KCR’s party.
Now, Vijayashanti in her recent speech blaming Chandrababu of having played spoilsport by cornering the NDA Government against the formation of Telangana has gained significance.
