It has been quite some time since one has heard about actress-turned-YSR Congress party legislator from Nagari R K Roja, who used to be regularly in news almost every day with her aggressive attack on Telugu Desam Party and its president N Chandrababu Naidu.
Once considered to be second-in-command in the party, Roja has gone silent after the YSRC’s debacle in the by-elections to Nandyal assembly seat and also Kakinada Municipal Corporation elections.
There were reports that party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy himself asked her to keep her mouth shut and confine herself to her constituency, since her loud-mouth nature was one of the reasons for the party’s loss.
So, all these days, Roja remained in Nagari itself, touring the constituency extensively and keeping good rapport with the people. But her basic instinct remained the same and she was only waiting for an opportunity to attack the TDP and Naidu.
On Wednesday, she got such a chance. Roja joined the voices of womenfolk who were staging a dharna in protest against setting up of liquor shops in the residential areas of Puttur.
Making an aggressive attack on the TDP government, she said many people had lost their lives due to consumption of alcohol, but the government was encouraging setting up of more wine shops for the sake of money.
The YSRCP leader further said that the women and girls were facing abusive remarks from the drunkards with wine shops in the household area and demanded the state government to shift their locations.
