Rajinikanth, Kamal Hassan struggling to enroll members in rural Tamil Nadu

Tamil celluloid superstars Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan are struggling convince the rural population to join their ranks, say insiders in Rajini’s fan club Rajini Makkal Mandram (RMM) and Kamal’s fledgling party Makkal Needhi Maiyam (MNM).

In a state dominated by the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and principal opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), workers of both the MNM and RMM say the response from Tamil Nadu’s rural population has been tepid because of the entrenched base of the two major parties.

Both RMM and the MNM also claim that their membership drives have run into opposition by the AIADMK and the DMK – a charge that the two parties have refuted.

Rajinikanth who announced his decision to enter politics in December 2017 is yet to launch his political party. He has been trying to strengthen his base through his fan club RMM. Kamal Hassan launched his own party Makkal Needhi Maiyam in February 2018. Given their star appeal, many had expected that rural masses would be swayed more easily but that hasn’t happened and both the actors clearly have a lot of ground to cover.

Rajinikanth had urged his RMM workers to form booth level committees within June, but it has not yet been completed.

Rajini Gupendran, deputy secretary of RMM, Nagapattinam district said, “There are about 65,000 booths in Tamil Nadu. As of now, we have appointed booth committees for 37,000 booths. We are working hard to attract people in other districts.”

Another office-bearer Saha Maalim with RMM’s minority wing said the delay in strengthening the grass root level organisation is the reason behind Rajini’s reluctance to declare a date for launching his party.

“For RMM, we don’t want to do politics merely with the star image of Rajinikanth. We need people’s strength. As we have to fight against the well-rooted DMK and AIADMK parties, we need a strong base at the booth level. We are working to constitute booth committees. We have to make a booth committee with 30 members. We have now enrolled 11 lakh members for the booth committees across the state,” Maalim told HT.

Maalim also conceded that they are finding it hard to convince people in the rural areas as entrenched loyalty to AIADMK and DMK runs deep.

N Ramalingam, block secretary for RMM’s Tiruvonum block in Thanjavur district said, “DMK and AIADMK are creating hurdles in enrolling members to booth committees. They are telling people to stay away from us. Despite these issues, we are accessing the public and we will be successful in making our leader Rajinikanth as CM.”

While the RMM claims about 50 lakh member enrollments, Kamal’s MNM is said to be facing an even bigger struggle according to a party insider who did not want to be identified.

However another district in-charge of MNM from southern Tamil Nadu who also did not wish to be named, said “While it has been really difficult and we have really struggled to enroll members in the constituencies of Senthamangalam, Yerkaud, Coodalur, Thirumayam, Orathanadu, we are doing okay in Sivagangai, Madurai, Trichy, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore, Chennai and Namakkal districts.”

The MNM office-bearer also said that both the DMK and AIADMK workers are preventing the success of their membership drive as party is equidistant and critical of both the Dravidian majors.

The DMK termed such allegations as baseless.

“We are not at all bothered. DMK has taken on heavyweights like actor M G Ramachandran when he founded AIADMK. In a democratic country, anyone can come to politics. We are not dissuading anyone from joining RMM or MNM,” DMK spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai told HT.

AIADMK’s spokesperson R M Babu Murugavel also refuted charges of intimidation in rural areas. “We cannot stop someone from joining a party. Perhaps the workers of both the actors’ parties find hard to break the loyalty of the rural population towards AIADMK. But we have not instructed anyone to do it (prevent somebody from joining new party),”

G Palanithurai, professor, politics and public administration, Gandhigram rural institute said both the actors are struggling to make a mark politically because their agendas are still not clear.

“Actor Vijayakanth had reached a commendable height in politics even while Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi were in active politics. Vijayakanth had his strength in the rural areas and he was closely connected with the rural population. Rajnikanth and Kamal Haasan are entering politics at the time when a political vacuum exists in TN. They are expecting people to accept them for their star values rather than the ideologies of their parties. It is not that easy. They need to go on statewide tours and explain their agendas and woo them to become members,” Palanithurai said.

Political analyst Raveendran Duraisamy believes it is likely that Rajini will fare better than Kamal Haasan. “Rajini has the potential to emerge as a leader. I don’t think Kamal can pull it off. Rajinikanth has a more mass appeal and I believe has some strategies to woo TN public. I think things are going to change, even if slowly for both the new parties.”