Superstars begin to give shape to their parties
Tamil cinema superstars Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan are giving shape to their new political parties-in-the-making -the former, by strengthening the organisational structure, and the latter by formally registering his party with the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Rajinikanth, whose latest movie Kaala will hit cinemas on Thursday, has been quietly taking steps to strengthen the organisational structure of his fan organisation, which is likely to morph into his new party. In order to strengthen grass root organisational structure before launching the party, Rajinikanth has urged the district and block secretaries of Rajini Makkal Mandram (Rajini People’s Movement) to complete the work of constituting booth level committees across the state by end of this month.
This comes even as Kamal Haasan, who launched his Makkal Needhi Maiyam party in February and introduced the flag in Madurai, is looking for official recognition and has applied to ECI for formal registration.
According to office bearers of Rajini People’s Movement, the reason for the delay in launching the party is because the actor wants to strengthen the organisational structure first. As Rajini Gupendran, co-district secretary, Rajini People’s Movement, Nagapattinam put it: “Our leader has appointed the district secretaries, block-level secretaries and office bearers for the youth wing, women’s wing and farmer’s wing; he (now) wants to complete the formation of booth-level committees within this June.”
“In Tamil Nadu, there are about 65,000 booth committees. As of now, we have formed 30,000 booth level committees with 90,000 members because our high command asked us to have 30 members in each, ” Gupendran added. Each constituency has several booths, which are managed by booth committees. Most cadrebased parties have a ground-up organisational structure, beginning with booth committees.
Golden Saravanan, Block Secretary, Thirupparangundram, Madurai district, of Rajini People’s Movement, said he has been asked to create booth committees in 64 booths. He expects to finish his task by the end of June.
It isn’t proving easy because, as a block secretary of the Rajni People’s Party from Thanjavur district pointed out on condition of anonymity, the ruling and opposition parties are asking people not to join the actor’s party.
Raveendran Duraisamy, a political analyst based in Chennai, said , “Despite being popular, Rajinikanth’s aspiration of building the organisation from the grass roots is essential strategy now. As both DMK and AIADMK have a strong organisational structure, Rajini, who has to compete with these Dravidian parties, has to strengthen the party from the ground up.”
Sudhakar and Raju Mahalingam, state organisers for the Rajini People’s Movement, did not respond to queries, but once the booth committees are formed, the actor is expected to make more announcements about the party and flag. June is also a big month for Kamal Haasan, who is expected to appear before the ECI to register his Makkal Needhi Maiyam (MNM) party, following which the symbol for the party will be announced.
Mandhavi Sharma, spokesperson of Makkal Needhi Maiyam, said, “As the election commission declared there are no any objections from the public for registering the party, the work will get completed in this month.”
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