Actor-politician Kushboo Sundar, who has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP and its policies, joined the ruling party on Monday afternoon after tendering her resignation to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, accusing some leaders in the Congress of pushing and suppressing people like her.
Speculation was rife in the past few months that the BJP was wooing her. Even last week, Ms. Sundar had launched a scathing attack on the BJP and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at a rally to condemn the Hathras gangrape and the events that unfolded following the death of the girl.
Terming her joining the BJP as “taking a step forward”, she said on Monday: “I have come to understand that if a nation has to move forward, we need someone like our honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji to take the nation in its right direction and to its glory. I am completely at service to the BJP and I will do my best to make sure that my State Tamil Nadu [BJP] sees victory in the upcoming elections”.
“I have done today what I should have done long back. I had to be loyal to the place I was in, before I submitted my resignation,” she told reporters. She refused to name who in the Congress had suppressed her.
‘Duty to criticise’
“Change is constant in people’s lives. Yes, I have spoken against the PM and the BJP very harshly. But now I am able to see what is good for the country. When a party [Congress] is not able to control its own organisation, how will it run the country?” she asked.
She pointed out that as the spokesperson of the Opposition, she had to criticise the ruling party. She said she had also praised some of its initiatives.
She said there were no corruption charges against anyone in the BJP and that the Congress did not have a majority in the Parliament because people did not have confidence in the party.
Ms. Sundar further added that her ideology would remain the same, although she had changed her party. “I am more of an activist than a politician,” she said.
