Twitter was abuzz on Sunday with rumours of Tamil Nadu actress-politician Khushbu Sundar dumping the Congress party and joining the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Hindu's Political Editor Nistula Hebbar wrote, "A Tamil Nadu related joining in @BJP4India is expected tomorrow afternoon! Guesses welcome!!!" "Tamil Channels flashing actress Kushboo joining BJP leaving Congress," added The Pioneer's J Gopikrishnan. He further went on to add that this will be her third political party. Khusbu Sundar was in Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) from 2010 to 2014 before joining Congress.
At the time of writing this copy, the actress-politician has neither clarified nor made any formal announcement of leaving Congress and joining BJP.
Khushbu Sundar was in the news recently after she welcomed Modi Government's New Education Policy 2020. Her view was contrary to the party’s official stance on the policy. Later, she apologized to party leader Rahul Gandhi for her differing stand. However, the actor-politician insisted she "rather speak the fact than be a head nodding robot or a puppet".
“My stand on NEP 2020 differs from my party n I apologize to RahulGandhi ji for that, but I rather speak the fact than be a head nodding robot or a puppet. Everything is n cannot be about agreeing to ur leader, but about being courages (sic) to voice ur opinion bravely as a citizen," she added.
Due to her differing stand, Congress's state unit hit out at her, saying it was "indiscipline" and that the grand old party was ready to discuss "any controversial" matters in its forums. Speculation was then rife of her shift to BJP, however, Khushbu Sundar cleared the air and tweeted, "Sanghis can relax, pls do not rejoice. I am not moving to BJP. My opinion might be different from my party but I am an individual with a thinking mind of my own. Yes, #NEP2020 is flayed n flawed at some places, but I still feel we can look at the change with a positivity (sic).”
All you need to know about the Tamil Nadu actress-politician Khushbu Sundar:
Born on September 29, 1970, Khushbu started her career as a child artist in the Hindi film 'The Burning Train' (1980). She was also a part of Hindi films 'Naseeb', 'Laawaris', 'Kaalia', 'Dard Ka Rishta' and Bemisal as a child artist. Later, in 1985, she starred opposite Jackie Shroff in 'Jaanoo'. She also played an important role in 1990's 'Deewana Mujh Sa Nahin', which starred Aamir Khan and Madhuri Dixit.
However, Khushbu mainly acted in Tamil films and became a leading actress in the industry. She has also acted in Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu films. The 50-year-old has acted in over 200 films in her career. During her career, she has appeared opposite top actors such as Rajinikanth, Kamal Hassan, Chiranjeevi and others. Her popularity was such that a temple was dedicated to her by her fans.
She joined the DMK in 2010 and left the party in 2014. Later, on November 26, 2014, after meeting with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, she joined the Congress party. Currently, she is an AICC member and the National Spokesperson of the party.
