Kamal Haasan chairs MNM party meeting to strategise for 2021 polls

Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan is holding an in-person meeting with his party district secretaries to chalk out a strategy for the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. This meeting comes after the party empowered Haasan to take decisions on the party’s alliance ahead of the crucial polls, where the ruling AIADMK faces a double anti-incumbency. 

It is understood that the main agenda of the meeting is to work on establishing booth committees for all constituencies and to draw the plans for the actor’s state-wide campaign tour, besides working out the funding for the party. 

In terms of their party’s stance, Haasan has been vocal against the ruling BJP and also the AIADMK government in the state. The actor has held regular meetings with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and also Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, besides Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee, The veteran act has been quite firmly stated that his ideology takes inspiration from the Left and also the Dravidian movement. 

Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam(People’s Centre for Justice), which was launched in February 2018 had contested the 2019 Parliamentary polls in 39 seats across Tamil Nadu and Puducherry as well as the by-polls to 22 Assembly seats in Tamil Nadu. 

While the fledgling party had not bagged any seats on debut, they exceeded one lakh votes in few constituencies and were placed third in few others. The actor had expressed that the main obstacles for his party were widespread poverty and money distribution in the rural pockets, where they did not perform well, as opposed to urban areas where they secured more votes.

“In certain areas we have 12per cent vote share and our average vote share is nearly 5 per cent”, he said in 2019, expressing happiness over his party’s then decision to go alone, sans alignments with major parties. He said that analysts and advisors on their side foresaw a bright future for the fledgling party. 

Kamal Haasan who will be celebrating his 66th birthday on November 7th had announced his 232nd film with director Lokesh Kanagaraj in September. Announcing the flick with Kanagaraj, Kamal had tweeted “Another journey begins”, with a picture that depicted a collage of the actor that was designed by arranging weapons that included assault rifles, pistols, bullets etc.. By the look of it, it seemed like an action-oriented film and the poster which sported a bright red background had the words “Once upon a time there lived a ghost” written in bold.

The veteran actor has been actively commenting on contemporary issues and taking potshots at the central and state governments over their functioning. In 2019, both Kamal Haasan and Rajinkanth had hinted that there was a possibility of them joining hands in their political journey. Hassan is also part of the Shankar-directed big-budget film Indian 2 and another project Thalaivan Irukkindran, which is said to be a sequel. Hassan is also busy with helming the fourth season of TV reality show Big boss. 

He was last seen on the large screen in spy-thriller Vishwaroopam 2.