CK Kumaravel, a businessman and member of actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam, on Thursday announced that he was leaving the party, reported The Hindu. This came a day after Makkal Needhi Maiam’s general secretary M Muruganandam quit.
“I quit the party in 2019 and re-joined with the hope that only MNM can bring change,” Kumaravel said. “That expectation was also among the public. I am angered by the fact that we have been reduced to those reading history, instead of creating history.”
In a press briefing on Wednesday, Muruganandam said the party’s undemocratic atmosphere had forced him to tender his resignation, reported The Times of India. “Party members were shocked when most of the seats were given to alliance partners without consulting anyone,” he added. “The clarification from Kamal Haasan that the party did not have enough candidates to contest in all the constituencies was painful.”
Muruganandam said that those who had toiled for the party were denied an opportunity to contest the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, held in a single phase on April 6. The results were declared on May 2. Haasan’s party was unable to secure a single seat in the state polls.
Haasan, who made his electoral debut, lost in the Coimbatore (South) constituency by a margin of 1,728 votes. Vanathi Srinivasan of the Bharatiya Janata Party won with 52,627 votes, while Haasan bagged 51,087 votes.
Multiple founding members of the Makkal Needhi Maiam have resigned in recent weeks. On May 6, the party’s Vice President R Mahendran quit, also accusing Haasan of running the party in a “non-democratic” manner.
Mahendran claimed that Haasan’s decision to give away 100 of the 234 seats to allies spoiled the party’s prospects in the state elections and demoralised the cadre. Haasan’s party had allied with two regional parties, the All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi and the Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi, in the elections.
However, after Mahendran’s exit, Haasan called him a traitor and expressed joy that “a weed has weeded itself out” from the party.
Also read:
Tamil Nadu: Kamal Haasan’s party vice president quits, actor-politician calls him a ‘traitor’
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