After much speculation, superstar Rajinikanth said on Thursday that he would announce his long-anticipated political party on December 31 and launch it in January. "A political party will be launched in January; Announcement regarding it will be made on December 31st," the south Indian superstar said in a tweet. Last month Rajinikanth tweeted that he would consult with the officials of Rajini Makkal Mandram about his health condition and announce his political stance to the people. In October, Rajinikanth had for the first time disclosed that he had undergone a kidney transplant in 2016 in the United States and that the doctors were against him venturing into politics in view of the coronavirus pandemic.
Rajinikanth had first announced his decision of entering politics in December 2017 but he had not taken any concrete steps to build his party. Rajinikanth’s entry into politics in Tamil Nadu, which has seen three actors rise to the Chief Minister’s post in the past, has been a matter of intense speculation for decades. While observers have spent much time dissecting the superstar’s films and his punch dialogues for political messaging, it was his one-liner during the 1996 Assembly Elections that once fuelled speculation over his entry into politics for years. His statement, ‘Even god can’t save Tamil Nadu if Jayalalithaa returns to power’ is believed to have swung votes in favour of the DMK-TMC combine during the 1996 election.