Rajini’s abstention will disappoint the BJP

The party’s opponents will now form a formidable challenge in Tamil Nadu

In the 1995 blockbuster film, Muthu, Rajinikanth’s character

comes up with a famous line: “Naan eppo varuven, epdi varuvennu yarukkum theriyathu. Aana var vendiya nerathula correcta vandhuduven” (No one can tell when or how I’ll arrive, but when the time is right, I will be there). For fans of the superstar, the wait seems to have got longer. Rajinikanth, for now, has decided to stay away from the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as he believed the time is not right. He has also declared that he will not support any party.

For professional watchers of the Tamil superstar, this declaration comes as no surprise. Unlike his Kollywood counterpart, Kamal Hassan, who has said his Makkal Needhi Maiyam will contest all 40 seats, Rajinkanth has always been a fence sitter. The only time he openly voiced his political opinion was in 1996 when he declared that even god would not be able to save Tamil Nadu if Jayalalithaa were to be re-elected. The subsequent electoral losses of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) were duly credited to him.

His stance, however, is a big disappointment to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has struggled to establish itself in Dravidian land. It is no secret that it has been making efforts behind the scenes to see whether in a post-Jayalalithaa era, a leaderless AIADMK would embrace a charismatic leader. While it may yet cobble together an alliance with the AIADMK, its opponents in the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-Congress-Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-Indian Union Muslim League (DMK-Congress-MDMK-IUML), along with the left parties, will pose a formidable challenge. Rajnikanth has asked his supporters to vote for a party which was ready to solve the state’s water woes, and BJP sympathisers are now reduced to pointing out that the National Democratic Alliance government had suggested linking the Cauvery and the Godavari.