Political dreams of Rajini, Kamal face rural hurdle
STRUGGLE Stars get tepid response from people in rural areas
and Kamal Hassan may be Tamil cinema’s biggest superstars but their political movements are struggling to gain a foothold, especially in rural Tamil Nadu.
Rajinikanth announced his decision to enter politics in December 2017 and Hassan launched his Makkal Needhi Maiyam (MNM) in February 2018. Rajinikanth is yet to launch his party. He has been trying to strengthen his base through Rajini Makkal Mandram (RMM), which is his fans’ association.
Given their star appeal, it was assumed rural masses would be swayed more easily. But that does not seem to be the case. According to MNM and RMM insiders, the response from the rural population has been tepid because of AIADMK and DMK’s entrenched base.
Rajinikanth had urged RMM workers to form booth-level committees in June. The task has not been completed. “There are about 65,000 thousand booths… we have appointed booth committees for 37,000… We are working hard to attract people in other districts,” said RMM Nagapattinam district deputy secretary Rajini Gupendran.
RMM’s minority wing officebearer Saha Maalim said the delay in strengthening the grassroots organisation was the reason behind Rajini’s reluctance to launch his party.
“For RMM, we do not want to do politics merely with Rajinikanth’s star image. We need peoples’ strength. As we have to fight against the well-rooted DMK and AIADMK, we need a strong base at the booth level.’’
He said they were working to constitute booth committees. “We have to make a booth committee with 30 members. We have now enrolled 11 lakh members for
CHENNAI:Rajinikanth
the committees.”
Maalim conceded they were finding it hard to convince people in the rural areas as loyalty to AIADMK and DMK is deep.
RMM’s Tiruvonum block secretary in Thanjavur district N Ramalingam blamed DMK and AIADMK for creating hurdles in enrolling members. “They are telling people to stay away from us.” He said they will be successful in making Rajinikanth the CM despite these issues.
MNM is facing a bigger struggle, according to a party insider who did not want to be identified.
Another MNM district in-charge, who also sought anonymity, said while it has been really difficult and they have struggled to enrol members in some constituencies, they were doing alright in others. The officebearer too blamed the DMK and AIADMK workers for lack of success in their membership drive.
The DMK called such allegations baseless. “We are not at all bothered. DMK has taken on heavyweights like actor M G Ramachandran when he founded AIADMK. In a democratic country, anyone can come to politics. We are not dissuading anyone from joining RMM or MNM,” DMK spokesman Saravanan Annadurai said.
AIADMK’s spokesperson R M Babu Murugavel too denied charges of intimidation. “In villages, we cannot stop someone from joining a party. Perhaps the workers of both the parties find hard to break the loyalty of the rural population towards AIADMK. But we have not instructed anyone to do it (prevent anybody from joining any party).”
Gandhigram Rural Institute professor G Palanithurai said “Actor Vijayakanth reached a commendable height in politics even while Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi were in active politics. Vijayakanth had his strength in the rural areas and he was closely connected with the rural population. Rajinikanth and Haasan are entering politics when a political vacuum exists. They’re expecting people to accept them for their star value rather than ideologies of their parties. It is not that easy.”