From CEOs to Co-Actors, Kamal Haasan’s List of Core Team ‘Freshers’
Chennai: As actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan releases his party’s first list of key members, political experts say that it will be interesting to see how ‘freshers’ will change the politics of the South-Indian state.
Projecting himself as a serious alternative to Dravidian politics, Haasan has chosen to include people from all walks to life in his newly-launched ‘Makkal Needhi Maiam’.
From CEOs to bureaucrats to co-actors, the list seems to have an interesting mix of people, which experts believe can further help Haasan substantiate his statement of “neither working from left nor right but centre”.
One of the key members is Raja Narayanan, who is the political manager of the party. Narayanan shot to fame following the success of his show Kuttram Nadandhadhu Enna aired on Vijay TV, which focused on unravelling the truth on various issues across India. He is also known for his reportage on Rajinikanth and his spiritual life in the Himalayas.
Another popular face in the party is actor, producer and director Sripriya Rajkumar, who is also Haasan’s good friend. Sripriya was known to be actor-turned-politician’s advisor during Tamil Bigg Boss, Season 1 and had appeared in one of the episodes.
Besides the two popular female faces, another member in Haasan’s core team is Kameela Nasser, actor Nasser’s wife, who is an M-Phil scholar.
Members from other political parties, who have now switched sides, are Congress youth wing general secretary C Rajshekaran and former CPI (M) member Bharathi Krishnakumar.
While Rajshekaran is an anti-corruption crusader who extended support to the superstar ahead of his political debut, Krishnakumar was with the CPI (M) two decades ago and drew flak from the Left party after joining Haasan’s party. They called him the ‘sleeper cell’ of the Left.
Another bigwig who made to the list is Naturals Salons and Spa CEO CK Kumaravel, younger brother of CK Ranganathan, CEO of Cavinkare. Interestingly, Ranganathan is married in the DMK family.
Political analyst N Sathiyamoorthy said, “Even for a beginning, it looks an incomplete list. He has begun somewhere, but considering that no other big names are in his party, whatever the reason is, he could have done better.”
The list is also an equal mix of people from different castes and community, including Dalits, Thevar castes and other religions, which will further support Haasan’s rationalist view as he strongly believes in Periyarism and shuns worshipping god.
Meanwhile, superstar Rajinikanth is also busy appointing office-bearers in all the districts. Rajinikanth said only after office bearers are appointed across the state, he will announce his party.
