Kamal Haasan, known as Ulaganaayagan (one person, many faces), an actor, dancer, film director, screenwriter, producer, playback singer and lyricist, who launched his political party Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) in February 2018 with the agenda of corruption-free politics, is ready for action on battleground Tamil Nadu, a state that has for decades been dominated by Dravidian parties - All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
The actor-turned-politician is going to make his electoral debut from the South Coimbatore constituency -- the Assembly segment where the MNM got more than 1 lakh votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, opposite popular BJP leader Vanathi Srinivasan and Congress leader Mayura Jayakumar.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the MNM had a vote share of 3.72 percent, which was significant as the party was hardly 14 months old when it faced the polls.
The maximum votes of 1.45 lakh were garnered by his party vice president R Mahendran in Coimbatore. In three of the four seats in Chennai, Haasan's party received up to one lakh votes.
Haasan's party MNM which is trying to be the third popular front in the state could influence votes in urban areas. It is a smart move that the actor chose Coimbatore city to contest from in this election as he is popular among the urban masses.
It will be interesting to watch how many seats the MNM captures as this is the first election the actor is contesting.
He has worked in over 220 films in Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, and Bengali, and has completed more than 60 years in cinema.
He has won four National Film Awards, 19 Filmfare Awards, the Kalaimam award, the Padma Shri, and the Padma Bhushan. He started his career as a child artiste at the age of six in the film Kalathur Kannamma, for which he won the President's Gold Medal.
Meanwhile, in a major declaration, the actor-turned-politician said that he will 'stop acting if it impedes his political career', while addressing a press conference in Coimbatore on Sunday.
The Makkal Needhi Maiam president has said that he would complete the films he had committed to and then quit if needed.
In Tamil Nadu, the 234-members assembly will go to elections in a single phase on April 6. As many as 6,28,23,749 electors will choose candidates for the sixteenth legislative assembly in the state.
( With inputs from ANI )
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