Is Kamal Haasan trying to tie up with a Dravidian party for 2021 Assembly polls?

Highly placed sources say that Haasan’s Makkal Nidhi Maiam is in touch with DMK for the polls.

CHENNAI: As Tamil Nadu warms up for 2021 Assembly elections, political parties have already started working on their seat sharing equations. As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, the alliance will be always headed by either of the Dravidian parties, the AIADMK and DMK.

The political parties which started as an alternate to the Dravidian ideology are also working their ways to face the 2021 elections. After the demise of Jayalalithaa and Karunanithi, several, including actors Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth, sensed a “political vacuum” in the state and expressed their political ambitions to become the Chief Minister of the state.

Highly placed sources say that Kamal Haasan’s “Makkal Nidhi Maiam” (MNM) is in touch with DMK for the upcoming Assembly elections and both the parties are open for the first round of the talks. Kamal Haasan’s “Makkal Nidhi Maiam” tested waters in the 2019 Lok Shabha elections and managed to garner more than 3.5% vote share mainly from the urban pockets of the state. Sources also add that the “Makkal Nidhi Maiam” has demanded seats on par with the number of seats that DMK will be offering to its long standing national ally and the talks are still in early stage.

Denying any such developments, MNM spokesperson Murali Appas has said that “inception of MNM is to be an alternative to DMK and AIADMK in state. But, we will be facing the Assembly elections with a formidable team and present an alternative to the people” and also added that this notion of Kamal Haasan being close with DMK is due the rapport that our leader shared with their Karunanithi and that will be always away from politics”.

Political analysts observe that the talks about DMK and MNM coming together to face the elections is too early to predict and this election will be very crucial for DMK and they will contest from the maximum number of seats and when that seems to be the situation, it will be tough for DMK to accommodate “Makkal Nidhi Maiam”, when they have a list of old allies to be taken care of.