The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Vijayashanti's exit is a loss: BJP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 28, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Vijayashanti's exit is a loss: BJP

Staff Reporter

On a question whether they did not take her seriously on the Telangana issue while admitting her into the party, party leaders said it was ` mutual coexistence' for them

HYDERABAD: The BJP has admitted that the exit of film actress Vijayashanti was a loss to the party but will try to make it up. To a question on the extent of the loss, senior BJP leaders B. Dattatreya and S.V. Seshagiri Rao only said that she was a member of the national executive of the party.

To another question whether the leadership did not take her seriously on the Telangana issue while admitting her into the party eight years ago, they said it was `mutual coexistence' for them in spite of reading her mind since then. Ms. Vijayashanti knew the party line and the leadership was aware of her ambition. Yet, they worked together.

`Only coincidental'

Mr. Rao said it was coincidental that Ms. Vijayashanti joined the BJP around the time when it adopted a resolution favouring statehood for Telangana at Kakinada. Two Central observers of the party, Jana Krishnamurthy and Sunder Singh Bhandari, probed the resolution and made their recommendations. The Central leadership later decided to put the resolution on the backburner. It was around this time that the BJP struck an alliance with the TDP, which was opposed to division of the State.

Mr. Dattatreya asked the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, to lead an all-party delegation to Delhi to mount pressure on the Centre to stop the projects taken up by Maharashtra on the Godavari. He also wanted the Central Water Commission to study the situation.

He said the attack on the convoy of the TDP president, N. Chandrababu Naidu, by TRS activists in Medak district on Thursday was a reflection of their highhanded behaviour. He wondered at the move of the State Government to set up regional development boards even before the UPA sub-committee on Telangana submitted its report. This was a clear case of double standards of the Congress Governments in the State and Centre, he said.

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