Actor-politician Kamal Haasan campaigned on Sunday and stood shoulder-to-shoulder atop a campaign van with EVKS Elangovan, the candidate of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)and Congress’s alliance for the Erode East by-poll.
Elangovan is a senior Congress leader.
Haasan, the president of the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), which he founded in 2018, walked alongside Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, clearing the decks for his association with the Congress party. Haasan floated his party on an anti-corruption plank stating that he would never form an alliance with the Dravidian majors of Tamil Nadu. However, Haasan couldn’t win his seat in the 2021 assembly elections and has also been a vocal critic of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“I have come to campaign for United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate EVKS Elangovan. You might not have seen me campaigning for another symbol,” Haasan said.
“During the time of danger, all that cannot be seen. The nation is beyond symbols, parties and flags. To protect that, I know who I have to join hands with. We cannot consider democracy, which is accepted by the world, as a path free of danger. There are several shreds of evidence in the world to prove that dictatorship can overpower us through democracy. Today that is happening in India. And that is the reason. It is my duty, and hence I have come.”
Elangovan sought Haasan’s support in January. Haasan on Sunday also thanked chief minister and DMK president M K Stalin and “thambi” (younger brother) Udhayanidhi Stalin for inviting him to campaign. MNM cadre was also present.
Haasan also said that he grew up listening to the ideology of E V Ramasamy, revered as ‘Periyar’, the father of the Dravidian movement, and Elangovan is his grand nephew.
“Our country should be a secular country, and as an Indian, I must support EVKS Elangovan, whose party had done pioneering work for the same,” Haasan said.
Haasan, who has often faced criticisms and sometimes a ban over his films, brought up the problems over his 2013 Tamil film Vishwaroopam, which was banned by the then J Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK government. “At that time, a lady (referring to Jayalalithaa) made me lose my balance. She watched and smiled,” Haasan said. “At that point, Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) called me up and told me not to be afraid, and he asked if I needed any help.”
While the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance has had a start in the by-poll campaign as it was the first to announce its candidate and several cabinet ministers campaigned, the opposition is putting up a spirited fight.
The bypoll was necessitated following the death of sitting Elangovan’s son and Congress MLA Thirumahan Everaa on 4 January. Everaa won the 2021 assembly election to this constituency by defeating Tamil Manila Congress (TMC) candidate who had contested under AIADMK’s two leaves symbol. This by-poll is now a direct contest between Congress and an AIADMK led by Edappadi Palaniswami.
The 74-year-old Elangovan is up against the AIADMK’s K S Thennarasu, who won the Erode East assembly seat in 2016. AIADMK’s ally, the BJP, is also campaigning here with a singular focus to defeat the DMK, thereby, the Congress candidate. Candidates of the Naam Tamizhar Katchi and Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK who broke away from the AIADMK ahead of 2021) are also in the fray.
On Sunday, BJP’s Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai campaigned for the AIADMK candidate Thenarrasu in Erode (east) constituency. “Out of 517 election promises made by the DMK, they have fulfilled only 49 as of today,” Annamalai said from his campaign van. “It has been 23 months since they formed the government. When our Annan (brother) Thenarrasu wins and goes to the secretariat, the DMK will only then start making their promises a reality.”
