Thalaiva Rajnikanth, who hinted on joining politics on Friday during his fan meet, could fly to Delhi to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the coming week.The sources close to the superstar said on Saturday said that “The BJP contacted him yesterday for a meeting with Modiji this week. Details are not yet finalised,”.
Citing the bonhomie between the Prime Minister and the actor, the source said the meeting could be to discuss the necessary steps and decisions to be taken in the coming months with regard to the expected announcement of the launch of Rajinikanth’s political outfit.
The state BJP declined to make an official comment, saying they were not aware of any such move. A senior BJP leader from Tamil Nadu said the party continued to hope that the factionalism within the AIADMK is sorted out, and the two parties are able to work together.
“We hope that both factions of the ruling party (AIADMK) will go along with whatever political decisions are taken by the BJP in the future. With OPS (former chief minister O Panneerselvam) having turned out to be a failed star, EPS (Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami) seems to have better plans. We will look for a united AIADMK soon, as OPS does not have many options left,” the BJP leader said.
While there exists a view in Tamil Nadu that neither the BJP nor Rajinikanth would be keen to make a firm political move or announcement before next month’s presidential election, there were suggestions from the sources close to the actor that his possible meeting with Modi is linked to the PM’s meeting with OPS on Friday. This meeting reportedly took place after the Centre had begun to indicate an outreach to the ruling (EPS) faction of the AIADMK.
After a series of raids on the leadership of the AIADMK’s ruling faction cornered the EPS camp and forced them to disown V K Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dinakaran, BJP general secretary Vanathi Srinivasan met CM EPS at the secretariat in Chennai two weeks ago. Although Srinivasan denied there were political motives in the meeting, multiple sources in both the BJP and the AIADMK said she had a role in the BJP’s new ‘cordial’ line to the CM.
Again, last Sunday, senior union minister M Venkaiah Naidu came to Chennai with a team of bureaucrats from New Delhi, ostensibly to review state projects, and cleared schemes worth Rs 1,083 crore in a single day. The BJP would ideally hope to form a wider alliance in Tamil Nadu with both factions of the AIADMK and possibly Rajinikanth too on board.
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