Kamal Hassan, who has made much noise without any success in politics, is now joining hands with Asaduddin Owaisi for the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections. On at least 20 seats, Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) will contest in coalition with Owaisi’s AIMIM. Around 6 per cent of the Tamil Nadu’s total population is Muslim, and Owaisi, who now sees himself as pan-Indian Muslims leader with the collapse of ‘secular parties’ is betting on Muslim votes.
“Owaisi is planning to unite all Muslim parties and contest the elections. The AIMIM may have an alliance with Makkal Needhi Maiam (Kamal’s party), Naam Tamilar and other smaller parties,” a source told News18.
Many districts like Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur, Krishnagiri, Ramanathapuram, Pudukottai, Trichy, Madurai, and Tirunelveli have significant Muslim population and on constituencies of these seats, the MNM will probably support AIMIM’s candidate.
Kamal Haasan, whose entry into politics has been a failure so far, is now banking on Owaisi to save his faltering boat. The Tamil Nadu 2021 Assembly Elections will be hotly contested with at least 4-5 large coalitions emerging. Apart from traditional DMK and AIADMK, there are PMK, MNM, and many others. Superstar Rajnikanth has also announced that he would contest the 2021 polls, although the party from which he would contest is yet to be declared.
Given the fact that Rajnikanth has repeatedly said that his politics would be “spiritual”, one thing that is very clear that he will either join BJP or ally with the party. Also, most of his close political advisors including S Gurumurthy do not come from Tamil Nadu’s traditional Dravidian politics but follow Hindutva politics.
So, practically the Haasan and Owaisi team would be fighting PM Modi and Rajnikant’s team, and therefore, the defeat of the former is ensured. Previously, the Tamil superstar has heaped praise for BJP many times and before the 2019 General Elections. He had said, “I have been speaking about interlinking Indian rivers for years. The BJP has released its election manifesto on Monday. Amongst the poll promises, I was attracted by BJP’s assurance to interlink Indian rivers.”
BJP is trying to end the dominance of Dravidian politics in the state and emerge as Hindutva alternative, and Rajnikanth’s ideology also reflects the same.
Given the fact that 87.6 per cent of Tamil Nadu’s population is Hindu and the majority of them are very Dharmic people, there is a vast ground for Hindutva politics in the state. Therefore, the party carried Vel Yatra- on the lines of Rath Yatra taken by L K Advani- in the honour of Bhagwan Murugan. The Yatra was started from Tiruttani temple in the north of Tamil Nadu and culminate at Tiruchendur temple in the south, covering six abodes of Bhagwan Murugan (For those who are not aware- Kartikeya, son of Shiva and Parvathi, is worshipped as Bhagwan Murugan in South India and Southeast Asia).
In the last few months, BJP has increased activity in the state. Last month Khusbhu Sundar, one of the most popular actresses of Tamil Cinema, joined BJP after she quit Congress on the grounds of being suppressed by the high command of the party. “A few elements seated at the higher level in the party, people who have no connectivity with the ground reality or public recognition are dictating terms and people like me who wanted to work for the party sincerely, are being pushed and suppressed,” she said.
BJP can fill the gap of non-Dravidian politics in Tamil Nadu. With the emergence of scientific evidence against the Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) in the last few years, many Tamilians have started rejecting it and now clamour for an alternative. The saffron party is set to provide a Hindutva alternative to the toxic Dravidian politics in the state. And, the Haasan-Owaisi alliance is surely too weak to challenge the duo of PM Modi and superstar Rajnikanth.