Vijayashanti: From 'Lady Amitabh' of south to 'Lok Sabha MP'

New Delhi: Very few politicians have the courage to take on the party chiefs and it is least expected from a person who is not a career politicians. But Vijayashanti, actor-turned-politician, did the same in 2009 when she threatened TRS chief K C Rao that if she was not allowed to contest Lok Sabha elections from ‘Medak' constituency then she will resign from the party. An embarrassed K C Rao had to surrender to Vijayashanti's whims and he conceded her demand. The capitulation on part of TRS chief was more humiliating because it was Rao himself who wanted to contest from Medak. K C Rao had no option to shift to Mahbubnagar LS constituency although he won it comfortably.The defiance of Vijayashanti matched her reel life image of angry young woman. She was known as ‘Lady Amitabh' of south film industry because of her action packed films. She has acted in over 186 movies in seven languages in a career spanning over three decades.Born on 24 June 1964 as ‘Shanti', she changed her name to ‘Vijaya shanti(vam)'on advice of her aunt Vijaya lalita.She has won the National Film Award in Best Actress category for Karthavyam in 1991. She has also won four Nandi Awards and six Filmfare Awards (South) out of which five are Filmfare Best Actress Award (Telugu) and one Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award (South).It is said that in the1990s, she was the only actress demanding Rupees 1 crore for a film. Most of her films with Chiranjeevi (19 films) and Balakrishna (16 films) were huge hits.The 49-year-old actress had joined the BJP in 1997. She was made the secretary of BJP's Women's Wing ‘Bhartiya Mahila Morcha'. During the 1999 general election she was named BJP's contestant from the Cuddapah Lok Sabha seat against Sonia Gandhi but she withdrew from the race after Sonia Gandhi decided to contest from Bellary.After some time she was disillusioned with BJP because she felt that the BJP was only interested in cashing on her popularity and she was not being politically rewarded. A disappointed Vijayashanti quit BJP in 2005 and formed her own party ‘Talli Telangana'. She merged her party with TRS in 2009 and she was made General Secretary of TRS.A few days back she was expelled from the party for praising Sonia Gandhi for creation of Telangana. She did not give any credit to her own party TRS for the creation of Telangana. But the real reason was once again the claim over ‘Medak' Lok Sabha constituency. This time TRS chief is said to be adamant to contest from Medak and this has infuriated Vijayashanti. An irked Vijayashanti has reportedly struck a deal for contesting from Medak and that's why she was expelled from the party.Let's have a look at some of her most interesting photographs: