Just when the leadership issue in the DMK was considered a closed chapter, with MK Stalin viewed as the next party chief, actor-politician Khushboo stirred a hornet’s nest by saying that the party’s general council was yet to take a call on the matter. Her remarks in an interview in Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan that hit the stands on Thursday enraged DMK workers apparently owing allegiance to DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi’s younger son Stalin.

Her house near Marina Beach in Chennai was attacked, window panes broken and windscreens of her car smashed while her children were at home.

Khushboo was away at a wedding in Tiruchirapalli where the entire DMK leadership was present. Reports from Tiruchirapalli said she faced an irate mob at her hotel and a slipper was flung at her.

A visibly shaken Khushboo told mediapersons in Tiruchirapalli that she was misquoted and that the magazine added words she did not utter. 

She said in her interview that Karunanidhi did not say Stalin would be the next leader. Maintaining that the DMK has strong inner-party democracy, she said the general council would elect the next leader. This was enough to enrage DMK workers.