Actor-politician Khushbu Sundar was among the18 candidates finalized on Saturday by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the upcoming assembly election in Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, popularly called 'Metro Man', E Sreedharan also got a party ticket for the Kerala assembly polls.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the BJP Central Election Committee (CEC) at party headquarter in Delhi. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President JP Nadda among others.
Sundar will contest from the 'Thousand Lights' assembly constituency. Sreedharan has been fielded from Palakkad.
Earlier, Sundar had claimed that she was insulted in the Congress and wondered how the grand old outfit could do good for the nation when there was "no freedom to speak the truth" within the party. Even while she was in the Congress, Khushbu said she
had welcomed the National Education Policy and abolition of the triple talaq.
Known for her views espousing the rights of women, Khushbu had said she continued to remain a "Periyarist" (follower of social reformer and rationalist Periyar's ideology) as she would go on to champion the cause of women. She said Periyar fought for the rights of women and oppressed people, including Dalits, and to be a Periyarist, there was no need to subscribe to all of his ideologies, seen as a reference to his commitment to atheism.
On the other hand, Sreedharan, the 88-year-old technocrat, who is hailed as the 'Metro Man' for his contribution to the urban transport sector, has resigned from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, as he embarks on his political journey. He was serving as the principal advisor to the DMRC and had association with it for over two decades.
READ MORE: Actor-turned-politician Khushbu Sundar joins BJP
