Kamal Haasan non-committal on joining INDIA bloc, says it’s time to bury party politics and think nation first

Haasan said discussions on his party’s alliance ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls are happening and “good news” will be communicated to the media.

As a reply to criticism placed against him for not being a full-time politician and continuing to act in films, Haasan said no one can be a full-time politician and claimed that his loss in the 2021 Assembly election from Coimbatore South was not his failure alone. He said it was a failure of democracy as 90,000 people did not vote in that election and people who question him should also question them for not being a full-time citizen and noted that if this continues to happen, an honest man can never win in elections.

“People said it will be difficult to pull me into politics, let me tell you, it will be more difficult to push me out of it,” Kamal Haasan said amid a thunderous applause of the party cadres.

The MNM leader said the Union government has not been able to achieve even 10 per cent of the welfare schemes the Tamil Nadu government is able to do for the farmers. “Now they have tightened the security around the national capital with iron nails on the road, multilayered barricading like akin to measures taken to prevent enemy invasions, in an attempt to deter the entry of farmers,” he said.

While responding to a question about actor Vijay’s political entry and his subsequent decision to quit acting before entering politics, Haasan said it was Vijay’s preference and different people have their own way of doing politics.

Launched on February 21, 2018, MNM has contested in two elections since then, including the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, but has failed to make a significant impact.