Superstar Rajinikanth, who made waves on Sunday by plunging into electoral politics, on Monday launched a website and an app inviting people to sign up in his campaign to bring about a political change in Tamil Nadu. Even as established political parties by and large appeared to play the wait-and-watch game, Rajinikanth uploaded a one-minute video extending New Year greetings and thanking all those who supported his entry into politics.
"I have created a web page -- www.rajinimanram.org -- where members of my registered fans associations and unregistered associations and people who want a good change in Tamil Nadu's politics can register with their names and voter ID to coordinate ourselves.
"Let us bring a good change in Tamil Nadu. Hail Tamil people and Tamil Nadu," he said in the video, which had a logo made famous by him in his super-hit film "Baba" with words "Truth, Labour, Elevation".
Accusing political parties of "looting" the people, Rajinikanth on Sunday said he would float a new party to pursue "spiritual politics" and vowed to contest the next Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. After years of uncertainty, the 68-year-old bus conductor-turned-heartthrob of Tamil cinema told cheering supporters here that his decision was a "compulsion of time".
Alleging that politics in the country had gone "very wrong", Rajinikanth said: "Under the guise of democracy, political parties are looting their own people." Such a system, he added, needed to be changed.
Meanwhile, former AIADMK MP K.C. Palaniswamy claimed that his party was not perturbed by Rajini's announcement. Ever since 1996, the AIADMK has been working on a strategy of 'anti-DMK+Congress+Rajinikant factor' and the actor's Sunday announcement that he would float a party was not worrying, he said.
"There is a widespread perception that Rajinikanth is taking a political plunge at the insistence of BJP. His announcement that he would practice `spiritual politics' will cost his proposed party the minority votes," said AIADMK spokesperson Palaniswamy.
In 1996 Rajinikanth declared that if J. Jayalalithaa was voted back to power, even God would not be able to save Tamil Nadu. That statement was said to have played a major role in the victory of the DMK-TMC combine then.
However, in 2004, Rajinikanth said his vote was for the BJP which had aligned with AIADMK for the Lok Sabha polls. At that time, he was very upset at the PMK party that opposed him for his smoking and drinking scenes in the movie "Baba". The PMK was then aligned with the DMK.
"The actor is facing an uphill task. Firstly, he has to build the grassroot infrastructure. His age (67) as well as the age of his fans, who are around 50, are against him," Palaniswamy added.
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