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Anirudha Karindalam
Anirudha Karindalam

Tamil Nadu

Will decide at right time: BJP on Rajini’s supposed political foray

rajinikanth-political-entry Rajinikanth

The BJP has responded cautiously to reports of actor Rajinikanth entering politics. Said Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to THE WEEK, “Our party’s central leadership will decide at the appropriate time whether to invite Rajinikanth to the BJP or not. He is a superstar who has millions of fans. We have great respect for him.”

While speaking to his fans on May 15 in Chennai, Rajinikanth talked about politics, among other things. He said, “God decides what we have to do in life. Right now, he wants me to be an actor and I am fulfilling my responsibility. If God willing, I will enter politics tomorrow. If I enter, I will be very truthful and will not entertain people who are in politics to make money.”

Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan, who is from Tamil Nadu, said that the BJP would welcome Rajinikanth’s entry into the BJP, if and when that happened. But the party’s maverick leader Subramanian Swamy said Rajini’s sense of politics was very bad.

If he decides to enter politics, it is not sure if Rajini would form his own party or be a catalyst to the BJP. During the campaigning of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Narendra Modi called on Rajini at his residence in Chennai. Rajini had said then, “He (Modi) is my well-wisher and I am his well-wisher.”

All political parties in Tamil Nadu have tried to capitalise on Rajini’s mass appeal. Rajini, on his part, kept equidistance from all parties. In 1996, angry over corruption charges in the Jayalalithaa government, Rajini said, “If Jayalalithaa is voted back to power, even God cannot save Tamil Nadu.” In December 2016, after Jayalalithaa’s death, he apologised for the comment. Said Rajini, “Despite the pressure from a patriarchal society, she (Jayalalithaa) shone like a diamond and now rests like a Kohinoor diamond.”

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