DMK’s offer to Kamal Haasan: A Lok Sabha seat or Rajya Sabha berth

The DMK-led ruling alliance in Tamil Nadu comprises the Congress, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) and the Left parties, and the move to include the MNM follows speculation from before the 2021 Assembly polls of Haasan’s inclination towards the alliance.

A senior DMK leader said they would suggest Haasan to contest on the party’s symbol – the rising sun – as that would ease his way, and that the seat he might be offered is Coimbatore, where the MNM did well in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. “If he doesn’t want to contest, he will be given the option of being our star campaigner and can be given a Rajya Sabha berth later,” the leader said.

Sources said Haasan, who has been interested in politics for a long time and floated the MNM in 2018 as an alternative to the DMK and AIADMK, was more keen on contesting on the MNM symbol of torchlight, which was recently approved by the Election Commission (EC). An MNM insider said while it was up to Haasan to take the final call on the DMK’s offer, if he contested, it would be on the MNM symbol. “Joining hands with the DMK in this election is for a larger cause, and contesting on our symbol is a necessity,” the leader said.

Haasan is banking on his party’s impressive performance in Coimbatore (getting 1.44 lakh votes) and South Chennai (1.35 lakh votes) seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to help him in the talks with DMK. In the 2021 Assembly polls though, the MNM vote share had dipped.

After the elections, Haasan saw several top leaders leave. He first developed ties to the Congress, but could not find a place in the DMK-led alliance in 2021. During the Bharat Jodo Yatra of Rahul Gandhi in 2022, he had participated for a stretch. Now, with the Congress fortunes not showing much revival, he sees the DMK as the best bet to revive its fortunes.