Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan has announced that he will be contesting the 2021 assembly polls in Tamil Nadu. He said that a decision on which constituency he would contest from would be made soon.
Sources however suggest that Kamal would likely contest from any of the four assembly constituencies — Mylapore, Alandur, T Nagar and Velachery — in Chennai in the Assembly election. The actor, who said he would try to become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, told a private channel that his contemporary actor Rajinikanth, would not return to politics and as a friend, he sought Rajinikanth’s support in the upcoming polls.
Kamal Haasan launched his political party Makkal Nidhi Maiam (MNM) in 2018. The party contested 40 seats in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019, winning none. However, what was even more surprising was their abysmal performance, which fetched only a 0.26 per cent vote share. Kamal, who had asked his long-time friend Rajinikanth to join forces with him then had announced that he is willing to form a political alliance and contest elections together if it would benefit the people of Tamil Nadu and if the circumstances warranted it. This was when Rajinikanth tweeted that he would launch his political party in January 2021. The latter, however, decided to forsake his political plans when his health took a hit.
Kamal has often stated that Makkal Nidhi Maiam is neither politically aligned to the left nor right, accusing both the right and left parties of compromising on the interests of the people and committing grave mistakes in the party’s website. Hoping that the MNM will head the third front, Kamal is expected to announce the party’s electoral alliance during the public meeting scheduled on March 7.