Haasan campaigns on behalf of the Cong-DMK candidate in the Erode east byelection.
Actor and politician Kamal Haasan campaigned on Sunday. He stood on top of a campaign van with EVKS Elangovan, the candidate for the Erode East by-election from the alliance of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Congress.
Elangovan is a top leader in the Congress.
Haasan is the president of the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), which he started in 2018. During the Bharat Jodo Yatra, he walked with Rahul Gandhi, which cleared the way for him to join the Congress party. Haasan started his party with the idea that it would fight corruption. He also said that he would never work with the Dravidian majors in Tamil Nadu. Haasan was a vocal critic of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but he didn’t win his seat in the 2021 assembly elections.
“I am here to campaign for EVKS Elangovan, who is running for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Haasan said, “You may not have seen me campaigning for another symbol.
“When there is danger, nothing can be seen. The country is more than signs, parties, and flags. To keep that safe, I know who I need to work with. Even though democracy is accepted around the world, we can’t think of it as a safe way to go. There are a few pieces of evidence in the world that show how democracy can be used to bring about a dictatorship. This is going on in India right now. And that’s why. I’ve come because it’s my job.”
In January, Elangovan asked Haasan for help. Haasan also thanked Chief Minister and DMK President M K Stalin and “thambi” (younger brother) Udhayanidhi Stalin on Sunday for inviting him to campaign. MNM members were also there.
Haasan also said that he grew up hearing about the ideas of E V Ramasamy, who is known as “Periyar” and is considered the father of the Dravidian movement. Elangovan is Periyar’s grand nephew.
Haasan said, “Our country should be a secular country, and as an Indian, I have to back EVKS Elangovan, whose party has been a leader in this area.”
Haasan, whose movies have been criticised and sometimes banned, brought up the problems with his 2013 Tamil movie Vishwaroopam, which was banned by the government at the time, which was led by J Jayalalithaa and the AIADMK. “At that time, a woman (referring to Jayalalithaa) threw me off. “She looked and smiled,” said Haasan. “At that point, Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) called me and told me not to be afraid. He also asked if I needed any help.”
Even though the Secular Progressive Alliance, which is led by the DMK, got off to a good start in the by-election campaign because it was the first to name a candidate and had several cabinet ministers campaign for it, the opposition is putting up a strong fight.
After Congress MLA Thirumahan Everaa, who was the son of sitting MLA Elangovan, died on January 4, a byelection had to be held. Everaa won the 2021 assembly election for this district by beating the candidate for the Tamil Manila Congress (TMC), who ran under the two leaves symbol of the AIADMK. Edappadi Palaniswami’s AIADMK is now the only party that can win this by-election.
K S Thennarasu, who won the Erode East assembly seat for the AIADMK in 2016, is running against 74-year-old Elangovan. The BJP, which is an ally of the AIADMK, is also campaigning here with the goal of beating the DMK and, by extension, the Congress candidate. There are also candidates from the Naam Tamizhar Katchi and the DMDK, which broke away from the AIADMK before the 2021 election.
Sunday, K Annamalai, who is the president of the BJP in Tamil Nadu, campaigned for Thenarrasu, who is running for the AIADMK, in the Erode (east) constituency. “The DMK has only kept 49 of their 517 election promises as of today,” Annamalai said from his campaign van. “They put together the government 23 months ago. Only when our Annan (brother) Thenarrasu wins and goes to the secretariat will the DMK start making good on their promises.”
