Kamal Haasan to be third front’s CM candidate
CHENNAI: Actor Kamal Haasan will be chief minister candidate of the ‘ third front,’ actor and All-india Samathuva Katchi (AISMK) leader Sarath Kumar announced on Wednesday.
Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), the AISMK and Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi (IJK) have sealed an alliance, Kumar announed in Pudukotai.
AISMK and IJK had formed an alliance on February 26. On Saturday, Kumar and IJK leaders called on Kamal at the MNM office.
Reports said on Wednesday that one more actor could take his party into the front led by Kamal. Vijayakant, one-time hero of many superhits, is angry with the way the ADMK has treated his MDMK and wants to leave the alliance.
An envoy has already talked to Kamal. The main glitch is that Vijayakant wants to be chief minister, but is too sick even to campaign.
Kamal Haasan told the media that good people who want change in Tamil Nadu can come to the alliance. “We are talking to the parties about the constituency distribution in the alliance. More parties are coming to the coalition. The name of the alliance will be placed when it comes across.
“We will talk to Arvind Kejriwal about an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party.”
Sarath Kumar, whose party was earlier part of the National Democratic Alliance ( NDA) comprising the state’s ruling ADMK and the national governing BJP, launched a blistering atack on the Patali Makkal Katchi (PMK) which is now a prominent component of the NDA.
He tore into the PMK’S atempts at playing caste politics without any shame.
“Someone told me that all the parties are functioning based on caste and people told me that I can also get 23 seats,” he said referring to the NDA allocation of 23 seats to PMK ater the state government passed a legislation to ensure 10.5% quota for the Vanniyar community.
The PMK politics has also drawn fire from the VCK, a component of the opposition DMK front. VCK chief and Lok Sabha member Thol Thirumavalavan accused the ADMK government of atempting to divide non-vanniyar communities in the Most Backward Classes (MBC) category by passing the Bill to provide 10.5% internal reservation for Vanniyar communities. The internal quota was a key demand of PMK ahead of the elections.