Telugu Actor-Turned-Politician Vijayashanti Rejoins BJP After Quitting Congress

New Delhi, Dec 7: Telugu actor-turned-politician Vijayashanti who had recently resigned from the Congress party has joined Bharatiya Janata Party, on Dec 7.

On Dec 6, Vijayashanti met with Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi after meeting BJP leader G Kishan Reddy and Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar earlier that day.

Vijayashanti started her political career with the BJP in the 1990s, later joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and then the Congress in 2014. She resigned from the Congress after the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation results over the weekend. The GHMC polls saw BJP winning 48 seats out of 150, a huge gain of 44 seats from 2016 civic polls.

BJP this time around has successfully made inroads into the TRS bastions, bringing the seats down from 99 seats to 56 from 2016 polls. TRS which lost exactly 44 seats in GHMC polls, BJP, on the other hand, gained the exact same number of wards.

Other than anti-incumbency, factors like angst amongst the voters against the ruling party’s handling of the flood, worked in BJP’s favour this time.

BJP won 15 wards out of 23 in the flood-affected eastern part of the Hyderabad-Secunderabad area including LB Nagar zone whereas TRS just won six.

BJP won all the 11 wards in LB Nagar constituency and also won the Malkajgiri seat which is one of the most flood-affected areas in GHMC.