Tamil actor Kamal Haasan is undecided if his political party Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) is joining the Congress-Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) alliance in the state. The actor has been voicing his support to several activities of the Congress party against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led union government. Kamal even participated in the Delhi leg of the Bharat Jodoyatra of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
MNM was not invited to the Opposition alliance meeting at Patna and in Bengaluru. However, sources in the party, told IANS that Kamal Haasan and his MNM was not part of the opposition alliance and that presently the party was concentrating in developing its support base across the state in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
Kamal Haasan had lost in the 2021 assembly elections from Coimbatore South seat to the BJP leader and Mahila Morcha National president, Vanathi Sreenivasan. Sources in the MNM told IANS that the actor will take a call on the electoral alliance for the Lok Sabha elections and at present is increasing the party voter base.
Twenty-six opposition parties met in Bengaluru on July 17 and 18 and decided to form an alliance named Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) to take on the National Democratic Alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The list of leaders included seven Chief Ministers – West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadu’s MK Stalin, Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab’s Bhagwant Mann, Bihar’s Nitish Kumar, Jharkhand’s Hemant Soren and Karnataka’s Siddaramaiah. More than 50 leaders of political parties were also present in Bengaluru including Congress’ Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, NCP’s Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Uddhav Thackeray, CPI(M) Sitaram Yechury, National Congress’ Omar Abdullah among others.