ON MAY 2, A VIDEO of filmmaker-turned politician Kamal Haasan walking out of a counting centre in Coimbatore with a torch—his election symbol—in hand and a sombre look on his face, went viral. Kamal lost in the Coimbatore South constituency to the BJP’s Vanathi Srinivasan, after leading the race for most part of the day. The man who claimed the legacy of former chief minister M.G. Ramachandran and pitched himself as an alternative to Tamil Nadu’s established Dravidian parties fared disastrously in the assembly elections, with the remaining 153 candidates from his Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) losing their deposits. The MNM polled just 2.5 per cent of the votes compared with the 3.7 per cent it got in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, finishing behind parties like the Naam Tamilar Katchi and the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam.
This story is from the May 23, 2021 edition of THE WEEK.
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This story is from the May 23, 2021 edition of THE WEEK.
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