Another blow to Kamal Haasan's MNM: Ex-IAS Santosh Babu quits after emotional message

Days after party vice president Mahendran exited Kamal Haasan's MNM after the Tamil Nadu polls debacle, former IAS officer Santosh Babu resigned as a Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) member citing personal reasons. The former bureaucrat's exit comes days after Kamal Haasan dubbed Mahendran as a 'coward' and had claimed that he was happy that the 'weed had got rid of itself'. Taking to Twitter, former IAS officer Santosh Babu thanked Kamal Haasan & the team for their affection & friendship and announced that he was resigning from both his post & membership in Makkal Needhi Maiam(MNM).   

After VP Mahendran, ex-IAS officer quits Kamal Haasan's MNM

MNM blamegame begins

Just a few days earlier, Makkal Needhi Main (MNM) vice president Dr Mahendran had resigned from the party's primary membership as he saw 'no hope for any change in the attitude or approach' of party president Kamal Haasan with regards to the functioning of the outfit. Announcing his decision to quit MNM, Mahendran stated that Haasan he knew would always give preference to the party ideology and would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the cadre and hoped that Kamal Haasan 'regains & retains' the leadership qualities that he had once displayed. Explaining the rationale behind his resignation, the former MNM vice president noted that he had worked vigorously with Kamal Haasan during the 'good old days' between April 2018 to September 2019 to make the party election ready and claimed that there was a decline in Kamal Haasan's 'tenacity of purpose'. 

Hours after R Mahendran quit the party, Kamal Haasan had attempted damage control on Thursday. In a 12-page statement, Mahendran claimed that things changed for the worst when Sankhya Solutions was roped in to manage the party's poll campaign in 2019. Since then, the actor-turned-politician not only became distant from MNM workers but also did not discuss important matters even with him, it was alleged. According to him, MNM had failed to win a single seat in the Assembly polls due to "poor decisions" on seat-sharing, alliance talks and the choice of seat Haasan had ended up contesting from.

DMK emerges victorious in Tamil Nadu Assembly elections

DMK denied AIADMK the opportunity to return to power for the third consecutive term and comfortably swept the recently concluded Assembly polls, ensuring its return to power after ten years. While DMK won 133 seats in the 234-seat Assembly, its allies Congress, VCK, CPI, CPIM emerged victorious in 18, 3 and two seats respectively. AIADMK, the 'big brother' of the NDA alliance, managed to win just 66 seats while its allies BJP and PMK won four and five seats respectively. In the past, the DMK had been the ruling party five times, during 2006-11, 1996-2001, 1989-91, 1971-76, and 1967-71. Earlier on Tuesday the MNM chief met MK Stalin at his residence and congratulated him on DMK’s victory in the assembly elections. Kamal Haasan also congratulated Udhayanidhi Stalin, who won from Chepauk-Tiruvallikeni constituency in Chennai.