CHENNAI: Sulking Khushbu severed her ties with the DMK “with a heavy heart” on Monday amid speculation that the actor-turned politician is gravitating towards the BJP. After the Dravidian major’s ignominious defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, she is the first senior politician to desert the battered party. With this, the curtains came down on the former tinsel world glamour doll’s four-year-long roller coaster ride in the DMK. Significantly, she chose to dash off her resignation letter to patriarch M Karunanidhi on a day when the party went to town with a major restructuring of the organisation in an attempt to rejuvenate and refurbish its image. Clearly, it was a case of expectations gone awry and she admits it.
“I have given my 100 per cent to the tasks entrusted upon me by the party. But, my dedication and hard work continues to remain a one-way path with the path I have chosen as well as the journey undertaken, causing unbearable agony,” was her reasoning to opt out of the party she had joined in May 2010. Even after the 2011 Assembly poll defeat, she remained with the party. Her rise in the ranks was phenomenal and her access to the leadership raised hackles.
However, the equation changed after she stirred up a hornet’s nest by virtually questioning the heir apparent M K Stalin as the natural choice to occupy the mantle. Her interview to a popular weekly raised hackles and her house was attacked in February and she herself faced the wrath of angry loyalists of Stalin who hurled footwear at her in Tiruchy. Following this, she went into a month long self-imposed exile. Not just Stalin, various factions within the DMK’s first family were reportedly opposed to her gaining prominence. Members apprehensive of being dwarfed by her too insinuated that she was a Mumbai-import.
Speculation Rife on Khushbu Opting to Join the BJP
Little wonder then that she hit the recent Lok Sabha campaign trail very late. The local Tamil media is thick with rumours that the versatile actor has been toying with the idea of switching over to a national party. They chose to read her tweeting a congratulatory message to BJP’s Union ministers Sushma Swaraj and Smriti Irani on their joining the Modi Ministry, in this light.
With her mobile phone switched off, she could not be reached for comment. The DMK too was guarded in its reaction since it was Kushbu who enjoyed unfettered access to the ageing patriarch. “We will talk to her and listen to her grievances. She carried out a spirited campaign in the Lok Sabha elections,” was all party organising secretary T K S Elangovan was willing to say. However, even while leaving the DMK, the actor tweeted saying the patriarch was like her father. Was she indicating that there was room for rapprochement? Watch this space.