MUMBAI MIRROR (February 18, 2019)

Rajinikanth, on Sunday, announced that he will not contest the coming Lok Sabha polls. In a statement on a letterhead of his fan club, Rajini Makkal Mandram (RMM), he said, “I am not going to contest the coming Lok Sabha elections. Our target is Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. I am not going to support any party in the Lok Sabha elections,” Rajini said.

He went on to appeal to his fans, saying, “Tamil Nadu’s main problem in the coming elections will be water. Any party that will form a strong and stable government at the Centre and which can solve the water crisis of Tamil Nadu permanently through schemes and give an assurance to fulfil them should be given support and fans should vote on that basis.”

There has been a lot of speculation around Rajini’s political stint ever since he hinted at entering politics actively to fulfil the vacuum caused by the death of iconic leaders M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa.

Rajinikanth had said he would be able to provide “good” governance like the late M G Ramachandran, the founder leader of AIADMK, and spoke of spiritual politics that lent itself to speculation that he may back the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha battle in Tamil Nadu, which elects 39 members to the Lok Sabha.

Political strategist Jhon Arokiasamy was quoted as saying, “By this announcement, Rajinikanth signals that he is maintaining an equidistance between the BJP and Congress. Also, he does not want any connection with the likely AIADMK-BJP alliance.”

“Perhaps this was done after the reversals suffered by the BJP in the recent assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and other states. That apart, he is setting the Lok Sabha poll narrative for Tamil Nadu by referring to the water problem,” Arokiasamy added.