In the run up to Kushboo Sundar quitting the Congress, senior party leaders, including AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal and TNCC president K.S. Alagiri, had tried convincing her to stay put.
The two leaders separately held talks with her last week, when she had reportedly assured them that she wanted to work for the party, multiple top-level sources in the Congress told The Hindu.
The assurance had led the Congress to believe that the rumours of her moving to the BJP, which had grown stronger last week, were just speculation. By Sunday morning, however, a few State leaders knew that she was jumping ship.
After her resignation letter was made public on Monday, an angry Mr. Alagiri hit out at Ms. Sundar, claiming that the party cadre had only seen her as an actor and not a politician.
Mr. Alagiri charged that she only got publicity by speaking at events organised by the Congress and had not been very involved in the party’s activities during the recent months.
He said she was brainwashed to join a “direct ideological opponent” as her husband, director Sundar C., was reportedly facing financial difficulties. “She has pawned her ideology to the BJP,” he said.
This will be the third party that Ms. Sundar has joined in the last 10 years. Her first stint of four years was with the DMK, from 2010. In 2014, she quit the party, citing a lack of recognition, and saying that her work for the DMK continued to remain “a one-way road”. A few months later, she joined the Congress, terming it “a homecoming” and was made the Congress national spokesperson.
