DMK and Congress guarded, TMC seeks Superstar's support

Chennai

DMK president MK Stalin, who addressed a couple of party rallies via video call since Rajini released the statement, did not break his silence till on Tuesday evening. Party women’s wing secretary and MP Kanimozhi was the lone top level party leader to react, but with a careful statement describing the decision as “personal choice”. Kanimozhi told media persons in Tenkasi that she wished the actor recovers completely from illness. “I want him to take care of his health,” she added.

DMK MP from Dharmapuri Dr S Senthilkumar asked the actor to “take care of your health and continue entertaining us on the silver screen”.

Read more: Time to change Tamil Nadu, says Rajinikanth

However, second rung leaders admitted in private that the election race would now have one less CM contender. They added that even if Rajini had gone ahead to float a party, he was more likely to split rightwing votes and eat into the votebank of the claimants of MGR’s legacy.

Barring reactions from some MPs, there was no significant response from the state Congress unit either. Sivaganga MP Karti P Chidambaram took to Twitter to opine that the actor had “no raison d’etre to launch a political party and enter the electoral fray. There was no strong ideological mooring for him to be in politics. His proposed entry and non-entry was much ado about nothing. It would have been a misadventure. I wish him good health.”

Also read : Rajini's Political Party: Baba or Baasha?

Tamil Maanila Congress leader GK Vasan asked the actor to pledge his support to “virtuous people” in the ensuing election, as he did in 1996 for DMK-TMC alliance led by Karunanidhi and his father GK Moopanar. Now part of AIADMK alliance, Vasan said the TMC desired that people like Rajinikanth should extend support to ‘virtuous’ people in the interest of public welfare.