Superstar Rajinikanth, who made waves on Sunday by plunging into
electoral politics, yesterday launched a website and an app inviting
people to sign up in his campaign to bring about a political cahnge in
Tamil Nadu.
Even as established political parties by and large appeared to play the
wait-and-watch game, Rajinikanth uploaded a one-minute video extending
New Year greetings and thanking all those who supported his entry into
politics.
“I have created a web page – www.rajinimanram.org – where members of my
registered fans associations and unregistered associations and people
who want a good change in Tamil Nadu’s politics can register with their
names and voter ID to co-ordinate ourselves.
“Let us bring a good change in Tamil Nadu. Hail Tamil people and Tamil
Nadu,” he said in the video, which had a logo made famous by him in his
super-hit film Baba with words “Truth, Labour, Elevation”.
Accusing political parties of “looting” the people, Rajinikanth on
Sunday said he would float a new party to pursue “spiritual politics”
and vowed to contest the next Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
After years of uncertainty, the 68-year-old bus
conductor-turned-heartthrob of Tamil cinema told cheering supporters
here that his decision was a “compulsion of time”.
Alleging that politics in the country had gone “very wrong”, Rajinikanth
said: “Under the guise of democracy, political parties are looting
their own people.” Such a system, he added, needed to be changed.
Meanwhile, former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) MP K
C Palaniswamy claimed that his party was not perturbed by Rajini’s
announcement.
Ever since 1996, the AIADMK has been working on a strategy of ‘anti-
Dravida MunnetraKazhagam+Congress+Rajinikant factor’ and the actor’s
Sunday announcement that he would float a party was not worrying, he
said.
“There is a widespread perception that Rajinikanth is taking a political
plunge at the insistence of BJP. His announcement that he would
practice `spiritual politics’ will cost his proposed party the minority
votes,” AIADMK spokesperson Palaniswamy said.
In 1996, Rajinikanth declared that if J Jayalalithaa was voted back to
power no one would be able to save Tamil Nadu. That statement was said
to have played a major role in the victory of the DMK-Tamil Maanila
Congress combine then.
However, in 2004, Rajinikanth said his vote was for the BJP which had
aligned with AIADMK for the Lok Sabha polls. At that time, he was very
upset at the Pattali Makkal Katchi party that opposed him for his
smoking and drinking scenes in the movie Baba. The PMK was then aligned
with the DMK.
Rajinikanth: political ambitions.