For the first time since launching his political party Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), an iconic actor turned politician Kamal Haasan has overtly expressed his aspiration for national politics as he shared his intention to his party cadres that he is ready to contest in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. As Kamal Haasan had largerly bordered his political play within the state, his interest to join the national political race has become the talk of the town, blended with key speculations. 

One of those speculations is what's in Kamal Haasan's mind about the alliance. On Friday - September 22, Kamal Haasan had addressed a meeting with party functionaries and members. The meeting was held in Coimbatore, a place where the legendary actor commenced his electoral battle back in the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls in 2021. It was indeed his first electoral run and was one of the star candidates in the state. 

In the 2021 polls, Kamal Haasan contested in the Coimbatore South legislative constituency, only to endure a defeat in a thin margin. He lost the race to BJP's candidate Vanathi Srinivasan but didn't lose his keenness to win from Coimbatore. This time, the actor is preparing for a much larger race amidst a challenging political ground. At a high time when Kamal Haasan is facing criticisms for his political detachments and his party witnessing some high profile exits in the past two years, the actor has made a statement that he is vying to take his politics to the national level. 

In a meeting on Friday, Kamal Haasan expressed his interest to contest from the Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency in the 2024 general elections and he also said that he expected his party cadres to work hard at the grassroots level to ensure victory of the party's candidates. The actor has also cited the overwhelming support he received from the Coimbatore South electorate in the 2021 assembly polls. It was the first time that he contested in an election and Kamal Haasan had secured 51,481 votes in Coimbatore South. 

He came second in the race as BJP's Vanathi Srinivasan has defeated him at a margin of 1,728 votes. During the Friday's meeting in Coimbatore, Kamal Haasan said, "When people come to watch my movie 'Vikram', why won't they come and vote for me." The meeting was aimed to revive the party across the state towards getting ready for the Lok Sabha polls. 

Though Kamal Haasan expressed his interest to contest in the Lok Sabha polls for the first time, it won't be first time for his party to contest in the general elections as a flock of his partymen contested in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Out of 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu, the actor's Makkal Needhi Maiam had contested in 36 seats and it had lost all the seats, securing 3.72% vote share. 

A friend turned foe 

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, MNM's candidate J Ebenezer, who contested from the Kanyakumari constituency, secured the fewest votes among the other candidates of his party as he got 8,590 votes. On the other hand, MNM's then vice president R Mahendran, who contested from the Coimbatore constituency had secured the highest number of votes by the party at 1,45,104. However, things didn't go well between Kamal Haasan and Mahendran later.

Mahendran, one of the richest politicians in Tamil Nadu, is a native of Coimbatore and had a good camaraderie with Kamal Haasan due to which he was made the vice president of MNM. After the 2021 state assembly polls, in which Kamal's party plunged further and only secured 2 per cent of the vote share, both Kamal Haasan and Mahendran had engaged in a war of words and the latter became a foe to the former. 

Mahendran later quit the party and joined the DMK, after it came to power. Mahendran is one of the crucial leaders for the DMK in Coimbatore, which is part of the western Kongu belt of the state where the ruling party is struggling to make a survival. DMK won the 2021 polls but it had lost the entire western belt, consists of districts like Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Erode, which has been dominated by the opposition ADMK. 

Now, Kamal Haasan's interest to contest from the Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat in the upcoming general elections has sparked a speculation whether he is mulling allying with the DMK at a high time when the entire opposition parties have come together and formed a united coalition to oust the BJP regime. As Kamal Haasan has been voicing in support of DMK in some instances including backing Udhayanidhi Stalin when he had a backlash over his Sanatan Dharma remarks, our sources say that the DMK leadership may consider inducting Kamal Haasan in the alliance. 

Political quid pro quo 

If Kamal Haasan contests in the Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat in the DMK alliance, it also benefit the latter to have a star campaigning from the legendary actor in a state where it struggles. If his popularity would help the DMK alliance, securing a berth in the DMK alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls would help Kamal Haasan and his party to gain political significance. We can perhaps expect a political quid pro quo between Kamal Haasan and the DMK alliance in the general elections. 

Kamal Haasan entered politics in 2018 and he is getting prepared to contest in the Lok Sabha polls for the first time in six years. Though his party had suffered a slew of setbacks, Kamal Haasan has gained political limelight nationally when he was invited by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to take part in his Bharat Jodo Yatra in Delhi. The actor-turned-politician has also supported the Congress candidate, EVKS Elangovan, in the Erode East by-elections. It is pertinent to note that MNM had independently contested in 142 seats in the 2021 state assembly polls, but lost all of them.