It has been quite some time since one has heard about senior actress-turned-politician M Vijayashanti. She has not been actively seen in the party politics and she hardly comes to Gandhi Bhavan.
Yet, according to sources, Vijayashanti is silently lobbying for the Congress party ticket in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections from Medak parliamentary constituency.
She is said to be using her previous connections with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to seek the party ticket, though her name was not in the reckoning by the PCC screening committee which shortlisted the candidates for Lok Sabha elections.
Apparently, Vijayashanti’s name reportedly came up for a brief discussion during the Congress central election committee meeting held in New Delhi on Tuesday, much to the surprise of PCC chief and chief minister A Revanth Reddy.
Vijayashanti, who had shifted from the Bharatiya Janata Party to the Congress in November, just before the state assembly elections, was named chief coordinator of the PCC in Telangana during the elections.
Vijayashanti once got elected to the Lok Sabha from the BRS. For her, joining the Congress is also a kind of her second innings with the party as she joined the BJP some years ago by quitting the Congress.
For now, the Congress has selected only four candidates for the Lok Sabha polls – Suresh Kumar Shetkar from Zaheerabad, Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy from Mahabubnagar, Kunduru Raghuveer Reddy from Nalgonda and Balram Naik Porika from Mahabubabad (ST reserved).
The second list of candidates of at least nine MPs is likely to released in a day or two. It would be interesting to see whether Vijayashanti will figure in the list or not.
