Chennai, May 14: Superstar Khushboo, who had claimed to be a great fan of Rajiv Gandhi and comes from a Maharashtrian Muslim family of ardent Congress supporters, today chose to join the DMK.

The 40-year-old actress became the first non-south Indian to join a Dravidian party, though the people of Tamil Nadu adopted her as their own years ago.

She took the political plunge weeks after the Supreme Court dismissed over a dozen cases against her for supporting pre-marital sex and live-in relationships.

In a twist of irony — or poetic justice, some would say —the spearhead of that controversy — a group called the VCK — is also part of the DMK alliance and will have little option but to grin and bear Khushboo if the party decides to continue in the coalition.

Soon after the court reprieve, Khushboo had said politics would be her next step and declared that the Congress was the natural choice as her family had always supported it.

But taking the political camps and her fans by surprise, the feisty actress today opted for the DMK.

DMK sources said Khushboo had herself approached them through Kanimozhi, the daughter of party chief M. Karunanidhi, with a wish to join the women’s wing.

The actress is also likely to be nominated to the legislative council once it is revived later this year. “I have joined the DMK and it is for its leader to give me any position he thinks I deserve,” Khushboo said.

Karunanidhi welcomed Khushboo, saying she has excelled in films. “She has the ability to strive for women’s empowerment and she will be part of the women’s wing,” he said, but denied the party was planning to pit her against prime rival Jayalalithaa.

Khushboo, who was the undisputed queen of Tamil cinema during the 90s, switched to television as age caught up with her.

Jackpot, a popular game show on Jaya TV — owned by the ADMK — that she anchors, could become the first casualty of her sudden decision. “It is really shocking because she has not consulted any of her close friends, which is very unlike her,” said a Jaya TV executive. Khushboo, however, was confident that her arrangement with Jaya TV would not be disturbed.

If the recent past is any indicator, Khushboo might have been pressured into taking the decision to join the ruling party.

Another Tamil actor, Vijay, who was set to join the Congress during Rahul Gandhi’s tour last year, had to hastily retreat after receiving warning signals that his films would not find any takers in the state.

“When someone who has openly declared she will join the Congress suddenly goes to the DMK, the inference is obvious — the decision is not entirely hers,” a Congress MLA said, though Karunanidhi scoffed at the suggestion.

The Congress has never been the favoured destination of movie stars in the state. The Congress’s sole screen face was Sivaji Ganesan until he floated his own outfit in 1998, only to merge it with the Janata Party two years later and retire into oblivion.

Sivaji’s actor-son Prabhu, with whom Khushboo had a live-in relationship before she married director Sundar C, did nurse political ambitions last year but lost interest after realising that former film stars do not make good politicians any longer.

Observers said Khushboo is unlikely to bring any great political value to the DMK as film stars have ceased to be politically bankable.

MGR, Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa rose to become chief ministers, but the political climate was different then. MGR exploited the carefully nursed anti-DMK antipathy created by the late K. Kamaraj in the seventies. Jayalalithaa, in turn, inherited MGR’s political legacy.