Blaming 'Internal Politics', 2 More Members Quit Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam

Chennai: A day after CK Kumaravel, a core committee member of Kamal Haasan’s party, quit MNM citing ‘internal politics’, two more have resigned from the party. Youth wing secretary Navin Karthik and Cuddalore district in-charge Venkateshan have quit from Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam.

Kumaravel, also the co-founder of Naturals chain of salons, quit the party on Monday and said, “There are many people who are not satisfied with Kamal Haasan. As far as I am concerned, I did not expect anything and therefore, I quit the party. I don’t know about others. There is a huge gap between Kamal Haasan and the party’s office-bearers. This party functions solely on WhatsApp messages. We get to know about the party’s updates on WhatsApp.”

However, issuing a statement, the party said it has accepted Kumaravel’s resignation because he violated party principles and announced on his own that he would be the MNM’s candidate for the Cuddalore constituency when the selection process was not even completed.

“Makkal Needhi Maiam has a strict zero-tolerance policy on applicants violating party principles for which MNM gives utmost importance. This is more so on applicants not communicating pending decisions to any media/social media ahead of the party leadership’s formal statement on the same, especially when there were more than a few hundred applicants waiting to be interviewed in a democratic manner,” the further statement said.

While MNM, in its statement, has said Kumaravel did not even ‘sit down’ for the interview before he took to social media stating he is an MNM contestant for the upcoming elections, Kumaravel rejected the statement. “On Saturday, I personally met Haasan and clarified the issue. The statement is incorrect. I participated in the interview and they asked me ‘How much can you spend for your constituency,” he added.

On March 11, Kumaravel took to social media and said he was planning to contest from the Cuddalore constituency for the elections on behalf of MNM and urged people to support him in his new journey.

Haasan will announce the list of candidates for the upcoming elections on March 20