CHENNAI: Dr R Mahendran, former vice-president of actor Kamal Haasan’s party MNM, and Padmapriya, an activist who contested the recent Assembly polls on an MNM ticket, were among those who joined the ruling DMK on Thursday. Mahendran and Padmapriya joined the party in the presence of Chief Minister MK Stalin.
During the event, MK Stalin welcomed Mahendran by presenting a shawl, and the latter handed over the details of the members, from the MNM and other parties, who joined the DMK along with him. Mahendran told reporters he joined the DMK after witnessing the DMK-led government’s service in the last two months.
“To serve in a political party, leadership quality is as important as the policies of the party. If not for Covid, my joining the DMK would have been a big event in Coimbatore,” he added. After the MNM debacle in the recent Assembly election, several candidates of the party, including former IAS officer Santhosh Babu, of Velacherry, and M Muruganandam, of Thiruverumbur, in Trichy district, deserted it. Most of them accused Kamal Hassan of inefficiency in handling the election and the one-man army attitude of the actor.
Though several people deserted the party, this is the first event in which a large number of MNM functionaries (a total of 78), joined other parties. Mahendran contested as an MNM candidate in Coimbatore parliament constituency in the 2019 parliamentary election and bagged 1,45,082 votes, while he secured 36,855 votes in Singanallur Assembly constituency in the recent Assembly election, where DMK lost the seat for want of a little over 10,000 votes. Padmapriya contested in Maduravoyal Assembly constituency on an MNM ticket and secured 33,401 votes.
Veteran journalist and political observer T Koodalarsan told Express, “Kamal Haasan’s biggest challenge would be to reconstruct the party structure since there is already no structure in the rural areas. This is evident from the fact that the party secured nothing in at least 40 per cent of poll booths where they contested in the last Assembly election.”
Views on BJP alliance personal: CVe Shanmugam
Villupuram: After taking part in a meeting with party cadre at Nattarmangalam on Thursday, former minister CVe Shanmugam said, “Some newspapers have published comments attributed to me, but were not said by me. Especially, a Tamil daily added words I didn’t say. It is not the fault of the newspaper management, it’s the reporter’s fault. The reason I gave for AIADMK’s defeat is my personal opinion. We can say many things, but decisions will be taken by the party leadership and we will follow that. Same way, BJP leaders’ opinion is also their personal view. There is no change in my opinion. I strongly condemn the news published that I opposed our party leadership.”