Rajinikanth not to support anyone in local polls

CHENNAI: Actor Rajinikanth said he would not support any political party in the local body polls scheduled for later this month in Tamil Nadu.

The Rajini Makkal Mandram, the grouping believed to be a precursor to the formation of Rajinikanth’s own party, warned on Sunday that anyone using the name or the picture of the actor in election campaigns would be subject to legal action. “Our beloved leader Rajinikanth has not extended support to any party for the local body polls,” the statement read.

The electoral appeal of the actor, who will turn 70 on Thursday, remains untested. He is expected to launch his party next year, ahead of the assembly polls in the state, in what will be the first full-fledged assembly poll in the state in the absence of Dravidian leaders J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi.


His celluloid contemporary, Kamal Haasan, scored a little over 3.72% of the votes polled in this year’s Lok Sabha elections, according to an internal estimate of his party seen by ET.