Minutes After Congress Drops Her as Spokesperson, Khushbu Sundar Quits Amid Speculations of Switching to BJP

12-October-2020

Minutes after Congress dropped her as their national spokesperson, Khushbu Sundar on Monday resigned from the grand old party amid speculations that may jump ship to the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP). The move is being considered significant ahead of assembly elections in home state Tamil Nadu next year.

"Few elements seated at higher level within 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," Sundar wrote in her resignation letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Khushboo Sundar resigns from Congress; says in letter to Congress President, "few elements seated at higher level within the party, people who've no connectivity with ground reality or public recognition are dictating terms". https://t.co/4cm6ZPmzyT pic.twitter.com/HzWX1d5RU8

— ANI (@ANI) October 12, 2020

At the Chennai airport on Sunday, the actor-politician refused to comment whether she was travelling to Delhi to join the BJP. Asked if she was still with the Congress, Khushbu said, "I do not want to talk about anything."

She was in New Delhi in the first week of October. On October 6, when asked if she was joining the BJP, Khusbhu denied it and said "someone is spending Rs 2 per tweet to spread the rumours".

A senior BJP leader privy to the developments, however, said Khushbu will meet the party's central team in New Delhi on Monday in the presence of Tamil Nadu unit president L Murugan.

"Discussions are still on. It's almost a deal, but the final modalities are still being worked out. By Monday, there will be clarity and an announcement is expected," said the source.

Khushbu Sundar had first sparked off rumours of rift with the Congress in July when she backed the BJP-ruled Centre's new National Education Policy, inviting the ire of her party's Tamil Nadu unit who accused her of "indiscipline".

Refusing to be a "head nodding robot or puppet", Khushbu had then stuck to her support for the NEP and apologized to party leader Rahul Gandhi for her contrarian views. She, however, had denied rumours of joining the BJP back then.

The noted actor, who has 200 films, soap operas and television shows to her credit, had entered politics in 2010, joining the DMK which ruled in Tamil Nadu then. After a rift with party leadership, Khushbu Sundar switched to the Congress in 2014.