Rajini’s speech whips up political storm

State BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan was first among the leaders to welcome Rajinikanth’s statement and subtly indicated her keenness to get the Superstar on board the BJP ship. 

Meanwhile, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy asked Rajini to stay out of politics as he is not well-versed in politics. Speaking to some news channels on Monday, Swamy’s responded to Rajini’s comments at a fan meet held after eight years in Chennai, which led to widespread speculations on whether he would be joining politics. Swamy reportedly said, “Rajini has no clear ideology. He is a mere distraction.” He further added, “Rajini’s following is a cult one. He has no ideology and movie stars are adept at giving statements as their dialogues are scripted by somebody else.”

All India Mahila Congress general secretary Nagma Morarji, while refusing to give a political undertone to Rajini’s statement, told DTNext over phone, “BJP has been falsely claiming that Rajini will join their party. To my knowledge, Rajini has only clarified today that he does not like being associated with any party. If he wants to take the plunge and join a party, it will be known on the day he does it.” However, the former actor, who co-starred in his greatest ever hit Basha, quickly criticised BJP’s alleged double speak and said, “BJP MP Subramanian Swamy demeaned him (Rajini) by calling him an unfit to make a foray into politics. Time and again, the BJP has been demeaning actors who have been expressing their willingness to take the plunge or even the ones who had done so. If Swamy questions Rajini’s educational credentials, what about Narendra Modi?” 

VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan, who welcomed the statement, also saw Rajini’s interest in floating a party of his own. However, PMK youth wing leader Dr Anbumani Ramadoss downplayed the statement and said the state people were fed up with actors ruling them and there were enough engineers and doctors and qualified professionals to rule the state.

Notably, the two Dravidian majors did not react to the actor’s statement.