Music composer Gangai Amaran, who is BJP’s candidate for the high-profile RK Nagar bye-polls met Tamil superstar Rajinikanth at his Poes Garden residence in Chennai on Tuesday.
Filmmaker Venkat Prabhu, who is Gangai Amaran’s son tweeted a picture of Rajini with the music composer and said that the star had wished his father “for his political victory”.
Today our thalaivar @superstarrajini met and wished my dad for his political victory in #RKNagarByElection #happyson #GangaiAmaran pic.twitter.com/K4t3UcU3O1
— venkat prabhu (@vp_offl) March 21, 2017
Despite his reluctance to join politics, this is not the first time Rajinikanth has been publicly seen endorsing the BJP
Ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi visited Rajinikanth at his residence in Chennai. The photo opportunity with the superstar was an attempt to boost the BJP’s performance in Tamil Nadu ahead of the polls.
In April 2004, Rajinikanth had voiced his support for the BJP-AIADMK alliance ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. His decision was based on BJP’s promise that it would strive for interlinking of India’s rivers as a solution to the drinking water crisis.
But it’s the 1996 Assembly Elections that the superstar will be most remembered for. His single statement against the Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK is believed to have had a bearing on the outcome of the polls. Rajinaknath had said, "If Jayalalithaa is voted back to power, even god cannot save Tamil Nadu." The DMK-TMC alliance went on to sweep the Assembly Elections.
The RK Nagar bye-polls were necessitated following the death of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa last December.
The BJP announced Gangai Amaran as their candidate for the RK Nagar bye-polls last Friday. He had hit out at AIADMK General Secretary VK Sasikala’s corruption in February when she was in the race for the CM’s chair.
The North Chennai constituency will see a multi-cornered contest with the two factions of the AIADMK, the DMK, Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa Jayakumar contesting in the April 12 bye-poll.
While AIADMK Deputy General Secretary TTV Dhinakaran is the candidate for Sasikala’s faction, the O Panneerselvam-led faction of the ruling party has fielded former RK Nagar MLA Madhusudhanan from the constituency.T he DMK has chosen to filed a relatively unknown face in Maruthu Ganesh, who is the party’s East Division Secretary of RK Nagar.