Veteran comedian Senthil joined the BJP in Tamil Nadu just weeks ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections. He joined the party in the presence of BJP Tamil Nadu state unit president L Murugan on Thursday. Senthil was earlier with the AIADMK.
Speaking to reporters after joining the BJP, Senthil said that he did like being part of the AIADMK and that he had therefore withdrawn from the party. “I will be campaigning for the BJP candidates,” he said.
Senthil is a popular name in the Tamil film industry and is among the top ranking comedy stars of all time though he has not been too active in recent years. The actor regularly paired with Goundamani and the two were hailed as the ‘Laurel and Hardy’ of Tamil cinema. Senthil, who played an important role in Suriya’s Thaana Serndha Koottam in 2018, has also been part of a television serial called Rasaathi, airing on Sun TV since 2019. The actor recently opened his official Twitter handle in December 2020.
Born in Ilanjambore in Ramanathapuram, Senthil was introduced as an actor in 1980 in the Malayalam film Ithikkara Pakki. Since then he has acted in hundreds of films, partnering mainly with Goundamani.
Senthil joined the AIADMK at first and later switched to TTV Dhinakaran’s AMMK after Jayalalithaa’s demise. In September 2019, he was announced to be one among the five AMMK organisation secretaries.
Senthil has joined the BJP after well-known faces from the film industry joined the party in Tamil Nadu. Actor-politician Khushboo Sundar and veteran actor Gautami joined the BJP and even submitted applications to contest from Chepauk-Triplicane and Rajapalayam constituencies respectively. However, the BJP did not get the demanded Chepauk-Triplicane and Rajapalayam seats during talks with the AIADMK.
Recently, Ramkumar, producer and son of veteran actor Sivaji Ganesan, joined the saffron party. Ramkumar’s entry into the BJP surprised fans of Sivaji Ganesan since the latter had been with the Congress party.
The BJP released the list of 20 constituencies allotted to them by the AIADMK on Wednesday. However, they are yet to release the list of candidates who will be contesting from the constituencies.