Kamal Haasan calls on Sonia Gandhi

Discusses political situation in Tamil Nadu

NEW DELHI: Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) president Kamal Haasan on Thursday met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi here and discussed the political situation in Tamil Nadu.

The actor-turned-politician had on Wednesday met Congress president Rahul Gandhi at his residence and held similar discussions.

“I have met Sonia Gandhi, and we discussed the political situation in general in Tamil Nadu,” he told the reporters after the meeting.

On whether he would support the Congress in its endeavour to bring opposition parties together on one platform to defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Haasan said, “It is too early to decide.”

The MNM chief said he had met Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders in Bengaluru at the swearing-in of H D Kumaraswamy as Karnataka chief minister.

Haasan met Sonia Gandhi at her residence.

The ruling AIADMK and BJP, however, sought to make light of actor-politician Kamal Haasan’s meeting with Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi with a senior state minister sarcastically remarking his party will not be bothered even if he met US President Donald Trump.

BJP leader and Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan said Haasan had met leaders of a party that had been “rejected by people”.

AIADMK leader and Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar said his party “being a powerful” organisation was not bothered about such meetings.

“As far as he (Haasan) is concerned, let him meet anyone, that is his right. Let him meet even Trump .... there is no need for us to bother about such meetings since we are (a) powerful (party) and are with the people,” Jayakumar, a vocal critic of Haasan, told reporters here.