A Day After Its Partner DMK Dog Whistled On His Caste And Criticised Him, Congress Invites ‘Secular’ Kamal Hassan To Join Their Alliance

The Tamilnadu Congress has made an appeal to the Makkal Tamil Maiam (MNM) founder and Tamil movie actor Kamal Haasan to join the alliance that the party with the DMK for the upcoming general elections, News Today reported.

Speaking to a Tamil news channel this morning, the newly appointed Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president K S Alagiri said since Kamal swears by secular ideology, he should join forces the Congress-DMK alliance which supports secularism.

“This would strengthen our alliance,” said the TNCC chief.

The invitation comes as a surprise given that Kamal has been lately hinting that his fledgling party will contest all the 40 Lok Sabha constituencies – 39 in Tamilnadu and 1 in Puducherry – alone, without striking up an alliance with any of the other parties of the State, for the 2019 general elections.

Hassan as late as last week had claimed that MNM wanted to serve the people and did not want the dirty its hands by allying with DMK or AIADMK. He also ruled out an alliance with T T V Dhinakaran-led AMMK

Political observers are also intrigued by Alagiri’s invitation coming a day after DMK launched a blistering criticism on the actor including casting asperion on by insinuating on his caste.

According to R S Bharathi, organising secretary, DMK, there was no question of his party joining hands with Hassan after the later’s diatribe against the DMK terming it a corrupt outfit

In a Facebook post share by the official Twitter account of the DMK, Vaagai Chandrasekaran, a DMK legislator from Velachery constituency and a veteran actor of the 80s, claimed that by criticising the DMK, Hassan was trying to satisfy certain vested interests and gain political mileage.

“Kamal has tried to forge an alliance with Congress. Since Congress has shut the doors to the MNM, he has been criticising DMK. It shows his political immaturity,” he wrote

“Kamal says that our party is corrupt. However, the same actor had praised our late leader M Karunanidhi on several occasions. While Kamal has been praising our late leader Karunanidhi as one who inspired him to take an interest in Tamil, he had conveniently forgotten that it was the patriarch who had led the party for over five decades,” Chandrasekar noted.

Hassan, who revels in his anti-BJP agenda, was always viewed as a natural ally of DMK and Congress. Rumours were agog for long that he has already sealed an alliance with the two parties and was planning to field a couple of candidates in the Lok Sabha elections. The actor had also personally called on Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi and discussed Tamil Nadu politics in detail.

Hassan also enjoys close personal rapport with Communist leaders, especially Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. He has often faced criticism in Tamil Nadu for taking an ambiguous position on the state's dispute with Kerala and his muted effort in supporting flood relief efforts in the state in contrast to his high profile efforts to mobilise support for relief and rehabilitation post Kerala floods.

Hassan is also said to enjoy good rapport with TMC leader Mamata Banerjee and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal. Kejriwal was a Special invitee during the launch event of his political outfit.