Chennai: Actor-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Neethi Maiam (MNM) on Saturday was allotted a Rajya Sabha seat, while deciding to extend support to the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Though reports had been doing the rounds for quite some time that MNM will ally
with the DMK-led Front in the Lok Sabha polls considering that Kamal shared a
close rapport with DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K.Stalin, it
has now been officially announced that both the parties will jointly campaign in
the Parliamentary polls.
It has also been reported that Kamal, who had unsuccessfully contested in the
2021 Assembly elections from Coimbatore South and lost by a narrow 1,728
vote margin to BJP’s Vanathi Srinivasan, has been eyeing at least two Lok Sabha
seats, including the Coimbatore seat from where Kamal is looking to contest.
A seat sharing agreement was signed between Mr Stalin and Kamal after the
latter called on the former at the DMK Headquarters ‘Anna Arivalayam’.
As per the agreement, though no Lok Sabha seats were allotted to MNM, it has
been decided to allot one seat in the 2025 Rajya Sabha polls from which Kamal
is likely to enter the Upper House of Parliament.
It has also been decided that MNM will campaign for the DMK-led Front in the
Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.