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HomePoliticsActor-turned-politician Khushbu Sundar quits Congress, set to join BJP

Actor-turned-politician Khushbu Sundar quits Congress, set to join BJP

Khushbu's decision to quit Congress comes months ahead of assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, where the BJP is looking to make inroads.

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Bengaluru: Actress-turned-politician Khushbu Sundar has resigned from the Congress and is all set to join the BJP.

BJP sources said she will join the party in the presence of national president J.P. Nadda.

Hours before her imminent induction into the BJP, the Congress dropped her as an AICC spokesperson. She had sent in her resignation from the party’s primary membership.

Congress secretary in charge of communications, Pranav Jha, released a statement Monday stating that Khushbu Sundar has been dropped as the party’s spokesperson “with immediate effect”.

‘People with no ground connectivity dictating terms’

In a letter addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Khushbu thanked the leader for giving her “various platforms in the most trying situations”.

“I came to the fold of the Indian National Congress at the time it was at its lowest , being defeated in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. I did not walk into the party for any monetary gain or fame,” her letter said.

Explaining one of the reasons for quitting the party, she claimed that there were a “few elements seated at the higher level in the party, people who have no connectivity with the ground reality or public recognition are dictating terms and people like me who wanted to work for the party sincerely, are being pushed and suppressed”.

She also wrote that her respect for Sonia Gandhi “will remain the same”.

Khushbu has been with the Congress since 2014 after she quit the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), citing lack of recognition of her work in the Dravidian party that she had been associated with for more than four years.

BJP looking at celebs to make inroads in TN

For more than a month, rumours have been rife about Khushbu joining the BJP, as the party had been trying to rope in celebrities and politicians who could help it make inroads in the southern state.

While there is speculation that the BJP may support southern superstar Rajinikanth, who is expected to launch his own party, the BJP would also like to cash in on Khushbu’s popularity. Inducting Khushbu, a very popular star in Tamil Nadu, when the assembly elections are just six months away is being seen as an addition to the party’s star power.

She felt sidelined in the Congress after EVKS Elangovan was replaced with K.S. Alagiri as TNCC president. She is likely to be given a post in the state unit of BJP, a ticket to contest the polls and could campaign in other states too, Chennai-based political analyst Sumanth C Raman told ThePrint.

ThePrint tried to contact Khushbu through calls and messages but did not receive a response from her.


Also read: BJP fields all 25 Congress rebels in MP bypolls, now convincing cadres will be the problem


 

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4 COMMENTS

  1. Clearly political parties are business outfits. When your company does not do well and or when your ability to make a quick buck in the company are reduced, you simply forward your CV to another company that recruits you. That explains the trajectory of Ms Khushbu Sundar, a.k.a. Nakhat Khan who left the DMK for the Congress and now has jumped ship to the BJP. The opportunist that she is, she clearly gives short shrift to the fact that she is joining a fascist, misogynistic and anti-Muslim outfit that is the very anti-thesis of what democratic and tolerant India stands for. Clearly, there is no shortage of useful idiots in India.

    Next, expect to see Ms Khushbu Sundar, a.k.a. Nakhat Khan taking a leaf out of Minister Jayanth Sinha’s playbook and garlanding gaurakshaks who go about lynching Muslim cattle traders.

  2. Slowly but surely the journalist who said
    “Rioters were protecting temples. When exactly the opposite was happening ”

    Is finding it difficult to support her fake narrative.

    But is still not ready to correct her fake propaganda.

  3. BJP must be nuts. It has this penchant for inducting actors and cricketers into its fold. Few if any such personalities have contributed to its growth. In fact, Shotgun Sinha became a bugbear for BJP.

    • Mr Gururaj: You claim:

      “.. BJP must be nuts ..”

      Well, not really. It is like every other political party in India – an opportunistic money making machine inducting every other opportunistic, rent seeking individual.

      3 traditions are essential – nay endemic – to Indian politics:

      1. The party in power will file Income tax cases or find some other legal or illegal way to harass an opposition politician
      2. Politicians facing legal or Income Tax problems will defect to the ruling party to get rid of the heat.
      3. Even if you are the rare, relatively clean politician, i.e. someone who only steals a little, to steal more, you defect to the ruling party

      Ms Khushbu Sundar may have fulfilled one or all the clauses above.

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