Actor-turned-politician Kushboo Sundar resigned from the Indian National Congress, after a six-year-long stint with the party, and hours later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at its headquarters in New Delhi.
She joined the saffron party in the presence of Tamil Nadu state BJP president L Murugan and BJP national general secretary CT Ravi. The party tweeted a photo and made the announcement official on Monday afternoon.
An eminent personality joins BJP in presence of Shri @Murugan_TNBJP and Shri @CTRavi_BJP at BJP headquarters in New Delhi. #JoinBJP https://t.co/5eNfAsmt9P
— BJP (@BJP4India) October 12, 2020
Kushboo released a letter during the day, addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, stating her reasons for quitting the party.
“I came into the fold of INC at a time when it was at its lowest, being defeated in the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections. I did not want into the Party for any monetary gains, name or fame,” she wrote.
She said that she came to the conclusion to quit the party after “a long thorough thought process over a period of time.”
“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,” the letter read.
She thanked former Congress president Rahul Gandhi in her letter.
Soon after she quit the party; Pranav Jha, AICC secretary in-charge of communications, released a statement saying: “Kushboo Sundar is hereby dropped as AICC spokesperson with immediate effect.”
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As per a report by The Hindu, rumours of her joining the BJP had been rife since 2014. However, she had been a vocal critic of the ruling party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Many see a change in me. Well as you age, you evolve n grow, learn n unlearn, perceptions change, likes n dislikes too, thoughts n ideas take a new shape, dreams are new, you understand the difference between like n love, between right n wrong. Change is inevitable,” she had tweeted on Sunday.
The actor’s political stint began in 2010 when she joined the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). She quit the party in 2014 to join Congress.