Veteran actress Vijayashanthi has resigned from the primary membership of the Congress party and is all set to return to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday. The actor-turned-politician is also expected to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah after joining the saffron party in New Delhi. She has already left for Delhi from Hyderabad along with Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar, reported India Today.
All you need to know about Vijayashanthi:
Born on 24 June 1966 in Madras (now Chennai), Vijayashanthi is the niece of famous Telugu actress and producer Vijayalalitha. Reportedly, she has studied till Std 10th before beginning her acting career at the age of 14.
In a film career spanning over 40 years, Vijayashanthi has acted in over 180 films in a wide variety of roles. She has not only played glamourous characters but also starred in women-centric films in various languages including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi. She has earned the monkier "Lady Amitabh" of Telugu cinema for her action roles. Vijayashanthi has also won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her work as a "super cop" in the film Kartavyam.
Vijayashanthi began her political career with the BJP in 1998. She was made the secretary of BJP's Women's Wing. The actor-turned-politician later formed her own party--Talli Telangana party-- to support the cause of Telangana statehood. The party was merged into Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in January 2009. She also became an MP from Medak after contesting on a TRS ticket and represented the constituency between 2009-2014.
Due to differences with Chief Minister and TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, Vijayashanthi quit the party and joined the Congress in February 2014. In 2014, she contested in the Assembly elections from Medak on Congress ticket but lost the polls.
In Congress, she was made chairperson for the Telangana Congress Campaign Committee. She was one of the star campaigners during the state Assembly polls held in 2018. However, there were reports recently that she wasn't happy with the treatment being given to her in the grand-old party.
