‘Blurred party lines and came here’: Kamal Haasan on joining Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra

Haasan was accompanied by the MNM functionaries, who were asked to join by the party chief in a video message on Friday saying that the march is for the nation and is beyond parties.

By: Express Web Desk

New Delhi | Updated: December 25, 2022 01:50 PM IST

3 min read

Actor turned politician Kamal Haasan at the podium of Bharat Jodo Yatra at Red Fort in New Delhi on 24 December. (Express photo by Chitral Khambhati)

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Actor-turned politician and Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) president Kamal Haasan on Saturday joined the Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in New Delhi.

Haasan, during a speech at the Red Fort, said, “Many people asked me why I’m here. I’m here as an Indian. My father was a Congressman. I have had various ideologies and started my own political party but when it comes to the country, all party lines have to blur. I blurred that line and came here.”

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Haasan was accompanied by the MNM functionaries, who were asked to join by the party chief in a video message on Friday, saying that the march is for the nation and is beyond parties.

Earlier, the MNM chief said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wrote to him inviting him to take part in the Bharat Jodo Yatra not as leader of a political party but as a fellow citizen.

The decision of Haasan to join Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra has indicated that the ruling DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu, which has the Congress as a key constituent, may soon have a new ally.

It is to be noted that the yatra began from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7 with Chief Minister M K Stalin handing over the national flag to Rahul Gandhi amid the presence of senior Congress leaders.

Since its launch in early 2018, Haasan’s party, Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), has maintained that it will “go it alone and do it alone” in elections, claiming a “moral upper-hand” over all the parties, from the DMK to AIADMK, Congress to BJP.

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