Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam has been piled up with a barrage of backlashes from losing the Tamil Nadu assembly polls to the events aftermath of the election results which showcased that the party is going in a wrong direction. Days after the declaration of the election results, the members of Makkal Needhi Maiam had braced up the bitter scenes as the party's second line leadership have more closely vanished. 

Leaders like the party's Vice President Mahendran, Ponraj, and Santhosh Babu had stayed off from the party and while Ponraj and Santhosh Babu stepped down from their posts, Mahendran, one of the trusted aides of Kamal Haasan, had quitted the party by citing that it no longer exercises democracy. Ever since Mahendran came out of the party, tensions were mounted between him and Kamal Haasan with the latter went on to label Mahendran as a traitor. The war of words escalated between them with heated accusations.
 
In yet another episode of huge setback for Kamal Haasan, two more popular faces in the party - Former IAS Officer Santhosh Babu and Environmental activist D Padma Priya had quitted the party. Both of them had announced their decision of quitting the party on Thursday and the development has come a week after the exit of its Vice President Mahendran. The reports say that Kamal Haasan will be pushed to count the resignations in the coming days. 

Santhosh Babu has announced his decision of quitting the party through Twitter. Taking to Twitter, the former bureaucrat has said, "Dear Friends, Good afternoon! It's with a heavy heart that I am informing you that I am resigning my post and membership from Makkal Needhi Maiam. My decision is due to personal reasons. I thank Kamal sir and our team for their affection and friendship."

Padma Priya too had cited personal reasons for her exit. She rose to popularity through voicing against the Environmental Impact Assessment Bill. She joined Makkal Needhi Maiam and earned a ticket to contest from the Maduravoyal constituency in Chennai in the recently-held assembly polls. It was her debut election but she had managed to secure more than 30,000 votes amid tight race from the DMK and ADMK candidates. 

Padma Priya was the third in the list of top three candidates of Makkal Needhi Maiam to get over 30,000 votes after Kamal Haasan and Mahendran. Santhosh Babu had contested in the Velachery constituency where he held virtual campaigns and talks to the voters amid receiving treatment for the COVID-19 viral infection. Padma Priya had thanked the voters of the Maduravoyal constituency for keeping faith in her. 

While both of them cite personal reasons for the exit, the reports close to the developments had revealed that the party is facing a back-to-back exit as the sequel of the dissent and dissatisfaction over Kamal Haasan's leadership. Last week, Mahendran had blamed outside forces for manipulating Kamal Haasan and he raised question over inducting Sankhya Solutions to handle MNM's campaign and said that the party's defeat in the elections was a direct output of the consultancy's lack of effort and planning. 

Kamal Haasan slammed Mahendran by calling him a traitor and said that he had not allowed others in the party to grow. The high-level drama unveiled by Makkal Needhi Maiam had become the talk of the town than DMK's victory as it had displayed a major drift and divide in the party which was united before the elections and Kamal Haasan had held campaigns in the assembly polls in favour of Mahendran, whom he called as a traitor. 

The recent exits hold evident over the dissent of Kamal Haasan's flawed management of the party. According to a news agency, a meeting between the members of the party and Kamal Haasan last week had ended in escalating the voice of dissent and dissatisfaction against the actor turned politician. It has been reported that some of the members had demanded Kamal Haasan for more transparency and accountability over the financial transaction made for the elections but he failed to disclose clear information, which is one of the factors that triggered the divide in the party, which is not even five years old. 

Dear friends, Good afternoon! It’s with a heavy heart that I am informing you that I am resigning my post and membership from Makkal Needhi Maiam. My decision is due to personal reasons. I thank Kamal Sir and our team for their affection and friendship.

— Dr. Santhosh Babu IAS (@SanthoshBabuIAS) May 13, 2021