Politics of hate

DESARAJU SURYA

Hyderabad: They romanced him in reel life but have now been spitting venom on him in real life. Actresses-turned-politicians Vijaya Santhi and R K Roja are now apparently leaving no occasion to lash out at Chiranjeevi, who launched his Praja Rajyam Party last month. Vijaya Santhi paired with Chiranjeevi in as many as 18 films, the maximum any heroine has done with him, while Roja starred in only two films opposite the Telugu Mega Star. After having sailed with the Bharatiya Janata Party for many years, Vijaya Santhi floated her own political outfit – the Talli Telangana Party – a couple of years ago espousing the separate statehood cause. Roja is now heading Telugu Mahila, the women’s wing of Telugu Desam Party. Both have been taking a dig at Chiranjeevi ever since he jumped into active politics by launching his own party. “How can one expect a man, who has done nothing for the welfare of the film industry workers, to work for the welfare of the people at large,” wondered Roja, firing her first salvo at Chiranjeevi soon after he formally made his political arangetram. Vijaya Santhi, on the other hand, took a dig at the Mega Star for failing to come out with a clear stand on the Telangana issue. “He is trying to hoodwink people on Telangana,” she had said. After Chiranjeevi undertook his first mass contact programme by meeting handloom weavers in Sircilla, Roja unleashed a fresh round of attack on the former by dubbing the trip as a “mere vote-garnering exercise.” “Chiranjeevi had never aided the people in times of natural disasters like the tsunami or cyclones or incidents like bomb blasts. He’s now shedding crocodile tears over the plight of weavers,” Roja said, addressing a gathering of Telugu Yuvatha workers and IT professionals at the TDP office. Around the same time, Vijaya Santhi too was also making snide remarks against the Praja Rajyam Party chief saying “he is a rank junior to me in politics. Don’t compare me to him.” People of Telangana would not trust Chiranjeevi’s words as he lacked sincerity, she said and cautioned him not to take people of the region for granted. While verbal attacks from other political leaders are obvious, the Praja Rajyam Party leader is also having to contend with diatribe from his erstwhile colleagues in the film industry. Besides Roja and Vijaya Santhi, notable Chiranjeevi critics in the film industry are actor Rajasekhar and his actress-turned-director wife Jeevita and producer Tammareddi Bharadwaja. Bharadwaja produced two films with Chiranjeevi in his initial years as an actor while Rajasekhar did a bit role in only one Chiranjeevi film. Rajasekhar and Jeevita have recently joined the Congress party in the state. For now, the Praja Rajyam camp is maintaining a calculated silence on the criticism and will react only at an “appropriate time.”