Kamal Haasan won't contest LS polls on Cong ticket: TNCC President

Chennai, Feb 24 (IANS) Scotching rumours regarding superstar Kamal Haasan contesting general elections on a Congress ticket, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee President, K Selvaperunthagai said on Saturday that the President of the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) would not be doing so.

He gave the clarification while speaking to media persons at Chennai on Saturday.

The INDIA bloc has been discussing the sharing of Lok Sabha seats in the state, with the senior partner of the alliance in Tamil Nadu, DMK, taking a tough position that it cannot give more than seven seats to the Congress.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress contested nine out of the total 39 seats from Tamil Nadu as part of the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) led by the DMK.

The SPA won all but one seat out of the 39, as the alliance lost in Theni where OP Ravindranath, AIADMK leader and son of former Chief Minister, O Panneerselvam (OPS) won the polls defeating senior Congress leader and former Union Minister, EVKS Elangovan.

In the recent rounds of seat sharing discussions with the Congress, the DMK pointed out that it cannot provide the nine seats it gave earlier and can only spare a maximum of seven seats.

The DMK’s negotiating team, led by former Union Minister, TR Baalu, pointed out that it would have to accommodate Kamal Haasan and provide him a seat.

According to sources, Baalu also pointed out that as per the inputs from the DMK District Secretaries, the Congress did not have grass root strength in many places and hence providing more seats would be a wasteful proposition.

Meanwhile, certain sections in the Congress suggested that Kamal Haasan contest the polls on the grand old party’s symbol as this would result in one more seat for it.

However, the TNCC President refuted such theories and categorically stated that the actor would not contest on the Congress’ symbol.

K Selvaperunthagai told IANS, “Kamal Haasan is not contesting the polls on a Congress ticket. These are just rumours. We will field our leaders on the seats allocated to our party and not people from outside the Congress.”