Jayasudha joins BJP, likely to contest as Secunderabad MLA again

HYDERABAD: Former Secunderabad MLA and actress Jayasudha joined the BJP on Wednesday in the presence of party seniors in New Delhi.

BJP General Secretary and Telangana Incharge Tarun Chug welcomed her into the party at a programme held at the BJP office in the national capital. Union Tourism Minister and Telangana BJP president G Kishan Reddy and party’s national vice-president DK Aruna were also present.

Jayasudha joined the BJP a few days after Kishan Reddy met and formally invited her. There had been speculations for the last one year that she was planning to join the BJP.

BJP MLA and Former Minister Eatala Rajender had also met Jayasudha and invited her to join the party. She was reported to have laid certain preconditions before the BJP and conveyed to the party leadership that she would join the party if those preconditions are met.

BJP has reportedly assured to give her the party ticket in Assembly elections due to be held later this year. She is likely to be fielded from Secunderabad Assembly constituency, which she once represented.

The invitation to Jaysudha is part of BJP’s efforts to woo leaders from various parties and well-known personalities to its fold to bolster its prospects for 2023 Assembly elections.

The actress, who played leading roles in many films in 1970s and 1980s, had joined politics at the invitation of Congress leader and then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy in 2009.

She was elected to Andhra Pradesh Assembly from Secunderabad constituency on a Congress ticket in 2009. She, however, could not retain the seat in the 2014 elections.

She had quit the Congress to join the TDP in 2016 but remained largely inactive in it. In 2019, she along with her son Nihar Kapoor had joined YSRCP headed by YS Jaganmohan Reddy, who became Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister in the same year.