Actor and Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) chief Kamal Haasan is all set to enter the Rajya Sabha this July following a poll deal with the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu. The elections to the eight Rajya Sabha seats from Tamil Nadu and Assam will be held on July 19.
A statement released by the DMK headquarters in Chennai, said that Kamal Haasan will be accommodated in a DMK ticket to the Rajya Sabha. MNM joined the DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Haasan, whose film Vikram was produced and released by Udhayanidhi Stalin’s Red Giant movies, grew close to the DMK high command after the film made it big in the box office. After Vikram, Haasan has done the lead role in Mani Ratnam’s Thug Life which is set to release on June 5.
Haasan chose not to contest the Lok Sabha polls. But his MNM extended full support to the DMK-Congress alliance and campaigned during the 2024 elections. The DMK had apparently given Haasan the option to either contest a Lok Sabha seat or accept a Rajya Sabha berth, a year later. Haasan had opted out of the general elections saying it was his own decision driven by his interest to get into national politics rather than for personal political gains.
Incidentally, in 2018, Haasan floated his MNM and went around the state campaigning against the DMK. His video clip, breaking a TV set with a torch light, which is MNM’s symbol, went viral as Haasan was seen delivering lengthy dialogues only to take a dig at the DMK, then. He contested the 2021 assembly election from Coimbatore South constituency and lost by a small margin to BJP’s Vanathi Srinivasan.
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Indicating his entry into Parliament, Haasan told his party members during the party’s eighth founding day celebrations in Chennai, that, “our voice will be heard in Parliament this year. Your voice will be heard in assembly next year.”
An atheist and an intellectual, Haasan’s speeches in Parliament are expected to be an added advantage to the DMK which is opposing the BJP and its policies.
Along with Haasan, DMK has renominated senior advocate and incumbent Rajya Sabha member P. Wilson, poet-writer and party spokesperson Rokkiah Malik popularly known as Salma, and former MLA from Salem S.R. Sivalingam.
Six Rajya Sabha seats from Tamil Nadu held by Dr S. Anbumani Ramadoss, M. Shanmugam, N. Chandrasegaran, P. Wilson, M.M. Abdulla and Vaiko are becoming vacant on July 25. With its existing strength in the assembly, the DMK can secure four of the six seats. The remaining two will go the AIADMK.