Tamil Nadu Assembly polls: Khusbhu ready to take on Jaya in RK Nagar

Chennai: Actor Khusbhu Sundar, who ruled the Tamil film industry for more than a decade, is ready to take on Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in North Chennai’s Radhakrishnan Nagar constituency for the forthcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly polls on May 16.

The actor said on Wednesday that she is ready to contest elections from any constituency which her party decided. The DMK, which was in a dilemma about the candidate for the high-profile constituency, is said to have accepted Congress party’s request to allot the R K Nagar Assembly segment to them.

“I am ready to contest from anywhere the TNCC chief (E V K S Elangovan), Congress President (Sonia Gandhi) and Vice President (Rahul Gandhi) asks me to contest. I will tell the truth to the people and seek votes if I am given a chance to contest,” Khusbhu said.

Khusbhu’s likely candidature from R K Nagar has raised many eye brows in the political circle since it would be the first time that a DMK candidate would not take on Ms Jayalalithaa directly.

Rumors were abuzz in Congress circles for the past few weeks that Khusbhu would be the DMK-Congress alliance’s candidate in Mylapore; however, owing to plausible threats from former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s supporters that they might tarnish the actress’s chances of winning the polls, she was removed from the concerned constituency.

“We have requested R K Nagar to be given to us. If Khusbhu is not accommodated, it would be a major loss of face for TNCC chief E V K S Elangovan. If she contests from R K Nagar, the party can send a signal that it can take on a political veteran like J Jayalalithaa at the hustings,” a senior Congress leader said.

Since the DMK does not want to field any political heavyweight against the AIADMK chief, the Congress’ request to allot the constituency have come as a major relief for the Dravidian party. For long, the DMK and AIADMK have fielded local leaders against top leaders of rival parties.