Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) might not have won any seats this time but it certainly fought with great spirit and gave a close fight to the Dravidian parties in many constituencies.
Speaking at his party office a day after the results of the Lok Sabha elections and bypolls were announced, Kamal Haasan said, “Our candidates are tomorrow’s winners.”
“There is no place for dejection in politics. We are only 14 months [old] baby. We are hopeful for the future.”Kamal Haasan, President, Makkal Needhi Maiam
He congratulated all the winners and thanked the voters who chose MNM. He assured them that the party will continue to work for the welfare of the people .
“BJPs victory is people's verdict,” he added. Kamal Haasan has always spoken fiercely against the saffronisation of the country by the BJP.
“We are now considered as an alternative. There are two mammoth parties. But we have stood out. We now exist in every constituency. So the decision of contesting alone was a good one.”Kamal Haasan, President, Makkal Needhi Maiam
He said that he was looking forward to performing better in the next assembly elections.
When quizzed about Pragya Thakur’s victory, he said, “Her statements could be different from what she does for her constituency.” BJP's Pragya Singh Thakur won by over 3 lakh votes against Congress' Digvijay Singh in Bhopal.
Thakur is on trial in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, and got into a major controversy earlier this week when she called Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse a ‘patriot.’
Breaking down the Vote Share of MNM
Let’s look at the vote share of MNM that gave the AIADMK and DMK a tough contest.
In its debut Lok Sabha polls, MNM secured the third place in many urban and semi-urban constituencies. Its candidates got more than 10 percent of the vote share in Chennai Central, Chennai North and Chennai South. Coimbatore candidate R Mahendran and South Chennai candidate R Rangarajan clocked up more than 1 lakh votes each.
The party also stood third in Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Sriperumbudur and Thiruvallur which are predominantly industry and business-driven cities.
However, the party failed to make any inroads in rural areas.
Many analysts believe that Kamal Haasan can definitely pat himself on the back, because he has now emerged as an alternative to the Dravidian parties, in a relatively short period of time.
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