Yesteryears’ actress Khushbu Sundar, for whom fans built a temple and an idli was named after her, ditched the Congress and joined the BJP on Monday.

“The nation has to move forward and we need somebody like our Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take the country in the right direction.  I am completely at service to the BJP and I promise to do my best and to the responsibilities that will be given to me,” said Khushbu after she was issued primary membership by CT Ravi, national secretary of the BJP, at the party headquarters in Delhi. She later met BJP president JP Nadda.

Earlier, she dispatched her letter of resignation from the Congress to party chief Sonia Gandhi saying: “Few elements seated at a 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.”

Khushbu, known to be hand-picked by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi joins the list of other party spokespersons like Tom Vadakkan and Priyanka Chaturvedi who quit to join the BJP and the Shiv Sena respectively. Another spokesperson Sanjay Jha was suspended from the party recently.

“I will work like any other party workers,” said the actress who also worked in Hindi films like Sunil Dutt-directorial ‘Dard ka Rishta’ wherein she played the role of his daughter.

She was the national spokesperson of the Congress since joining the party in 2014. During 2010 to 2014 she was in the DMK as the blue-eyed girl of the then party supremo M Karunanidhi. 

“It will not have any impact on Tamil Nadu politics,” Dinesh Gundu Rao, the Congress’s in-charge for Tamil Nadu, said.

Narayanan Thirupathi, BJP spokesman, said Khushbu’s joining the party would make it more acceptable to the people of the State because of her popularity and acceptability.

But Sam Rajappa, veteran commentator and columnist, said Khushbu joining the BJP would not make any impact in Tamil Nadu politics.

The BJP in Tamil Nadu is facing an identity crisis and Khushbu’s entry would not add much fragrance or flavour to the party, according to R Rangaraj, author and scribe.

He pointed out that the AIADMK with which the BJP has an alliance kept the latter away from recent assembly by-elections in Tamil Nadu as the former believes that the defeat in 38 out of the 39 seats in the Lok Sabha election was due to an anti-BJP wave in Tamil Nadu.