After years of anticipation, Superstar Rajinikanth, in 2017, announced he would enter politics. But by 2021 he dropped his plans. It has now emerged that a BJP leader had advised Rajinikanth against taking the political plunge. Who was it? Read on.
At the time when actor Rajinikanth was about to launch his party, there were speculations that the BJP was behind his decision. Turns out, there was someone from the party who told him not to become a full-time politician.
Superstar, as he is called by fans and the film fraternity, Rajinikanth announced on 31 December 2017 that he would enter politics and his party would contest in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections in all 234 constituencies.
On 12 July 2021, he dissolved his fan organisation Rajini Makkal Mandram and said that he would not enter politics given his health condition.
During the period, 2018 to July 2021, several political parties including the DMK, the AIADMK, the Naam Tamilar Katchi, and the PMK opposed the actor’s decision and contended that the actor was a B team of the BJP.
Rajini also met several personalities related to the saffron party during this time, which substantiated the allegation of other parties. Even current Tamil Nadu BJP unit leader K Annamalai met the actor several times before joining the saffron party after resigning from his police job.
Even in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the actor announced openly that he would vote for the BJP, and several trolls painted him as a “Sanghi”.
While so, Rajinikanth, during a function on Saturday in Chennai, said that only after his doctor told him about the health consequences of being in a crowd while campaigning during the second wave of Covid-19 did he decide not to enter politics.
In the same function, former vice-president Venkaiah Naidu revealed that he, too, had a role in the actor’s decision not to enter politics.
“When I learnt that Rajini wanted to enter politics, I spoke to auditor Gurumurthy to advise him not to enter politics. Gurumurthy asked me to speak to the actor directly,” he said.
“I spoke to Rajini and asked him not to come to politics, and said there were better ways to serve the people, and finally he decided not to start a party,” Naidu said.
When there were speculations that the BJP wanted the actor to start a party and contest in Tamil Nadu elections, a senior BJP leader himself advised Rajini not to come to politics is the talk of the town now.
It is to be noted that in 2020, Rajinikanth had undergone a kidney transplant in Singapore.
