E-Paper
Kamal Haasan’s MNM makes him permanent president of party
In its day-long general council meeting, the party resolved to see Haasan as the next CM of Tamil Nadu. It has also sought that the probe into Jayalalithaa’s death be expedited
Actor-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) on Thursday resolved to make him the next chief minister of Tamil Nadu as also the party’s permanent president with all powers vested in him to decide on alliances. Among the 25 resolutions that the fledgling party passed in its day-long general council meeting was that of seeking that the inquiry process into former state chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s death be expedited.
Haasan has positioned himself as an alternative to the two Dravidian parties, AIADMK and DMK, with a poll plank of fighting against corruption. The other resolutions include bringing out a white paper before the polls on the state’s debts, opposing the 8-lane Chennai-Salem expressway and condemning the Centre for promoting Hindi and Sanskrit. MNM also condemned the delay in booking the accused in the Pollachi sex assault case and the delay in deciding on the release of the seven convicts in the 1991 Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
MNM, which was formed in 2018, secured a 3.7% vote share in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Several former bureaucrats and social activists have joined Haasan’s party.
With its resolution on Jayalalithaa death probe, the party has joined the Opposition chorus on the same. DMK chief MK Stalin has said multiple times that if voted to power, his party would conduct a probe into the “mystery” as several questions were raised over the death. The former AIADMK chief died after a prolonged hospitalisation. The ruling AIADMK formed a one-man commission led by retired justice Arumughaswamy in 2017. Stalin blames the Palaniswami-led government for the staggered proceedings.
The judicial probe was one of the demands of O Paneerselvam to merge his warring faction with chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami. After Jayalalithaa’s death, Paneerselvam resigned as chief minister to make way for her close aide VK Sasikala, only to rebel against her later. With Sasikala’s return after her four-year imprisonment and her plans to reclaim the AIADMK, the issue of Jayalalithaa’s death looms over the forthcoming polls in Tamil Nadu slated for April- May. The justice Arumughaswamy committee has so far been extended nine times after examining more than 100 witnesses.
